Breakdown in 100-year-old pipeline leaves Cienfuegos without water

Breakdown in 100-year-old pipeline leaves Cienfuegos without water

Infrastructure problems affect one of the most important cities in Cuba.
However, breaks are frequent, leaving various areas of the city without
water service. It is estimated that replacing the pipes would cost about
$ 40 million.
BY MARIO J. PENTÓN
staff@InCubaToday.com

A major water line on Dolores Avenue, one of the main streets in
Cienfuegos in central Cuba, collapsed Sunday night leaving part of the
population without access to potable water for the second time in less
than a week.

According to official Cuban press, there is a 12-inch hole that appeared
following repairs in the same pipeline the previous week.

Manuel Marchante López, director of the Water and Sewage Company in
Cienfuegos, blamed deterioration of the pipeline network and traffic for
the problem.

"The vibration produced by the passing of cars provokes these
breakdowns, plus the water pressure," Marchante López told local media.
"When services are provided to the lower level areas, you have to
compensate... with higher water pressure..."

Cienfuegos, with a population of 174,769 according to the latest census,
was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 2005. But the
deterioration of its infrastructure and buildings is a recurring problem
for the city, which was founded in 1819 by French settlers.

Some residents complained of frequent disruptions in water service.

"Those who didn't store water, won't have any," said Berta, a resident
of the district of San Lazaro. "I have a cistern that I commissioned
years ago because one can't rely on the water service here. There is
always either a breakage in Paso Bonito or some other problem; they are
always looking for an excuse for not providing water to the people."

During the last weekend alone there were four similar disruptions, which
forced local authorities to distribute water using tanker trucks. Some
people in the neighborhood of Buena Vista were angry because they had to
pay between 10 and 15 convertible Cuban dollars known as CUC — between
$10 and $15 — to a tanker truck driver for filling the cisterns in their
buildings. On Monday, two new breakdowns were reported in the industrial
zone and in the Quinientos neighborhood.

"Sometimes one of the neighbors, who is with the government, manages to
get a tanker truck to come. But if not, we have to carry the water
ourselves, which is a lot of work," said Yakelin, a 34-year-old housewife.

"We need water for everything. Imagine, with these tall buildings, what
it means to have to haul in water ourselves," she said.

The water main break has created another problem for those who live in
Cienfuegos: a poor public transportation system made worse by massive
potholes and traffic detours. Horse-drawn carriages, a preferred mode of
transportation, can't get through Dolores Avenue, a main artery that
connects the city with various highly-populated neighborhoods, including
Pueblo Griffo, Tulipán, Buena Vista and Caunao.

"Now the carriages and the buses must take a large detour, and
eventually they will end up leaving the road impassable," said longtime
resident Isabel Diaz. "That happened last time and you could not get
around the potholes left after the repairs."

The pipeline network in Cienfuegos is more than 100 years old and Cuban
media has reported that replacing the pipes would cost about $40
million, a sum not available in the national budget. Presently, the
province has six reservoirs and one pumping station.

Each year, about 3,400 million cubic meters of water is lost as a result
of leaks, according to data provided by the National Institute of
Hydraulic Resources (INRH).

Efforts to reach water authorities in Cienfuegos were not immediately
successful. A secretary reached by phone said they were "on site"
dealing with repairs.

While the quest to find water in the midst of hot weather in Cienfuegos
continues — with temperatures already reaching as high as 90s — a
retired teacher, is glad to have used the most recent remittance sent by
her son in Miami to install a water tank on the roof of her house. The
tank costs about 1,600 Cuban pesos, the equivalent of three months'
average salary.

"It's the best investment I've made," she said.

Source: Breakdown in 100-year-old pipeline leaves Cienfuegos without
water | In Cuba Today - http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article77972007.html