The drought vs. the self employed

The drought vs. the self employed
WALDO FERNÁNDEZ CUENCA | La Habana | 16 Oct 2015 - 7:13 pm.

There has been a government crackdown on the construction of illegal
pools and the expansion of car washes, but no effort to address Cuba's
dreadfully defective conduits and pipes.

Due to the intense and prolonged drought affecting the country, one of
the worst in decades, authorities have decided not to grant more
licenses to private car washes, and to begin to reduce the water supply
to those that have more than one. A source at the National Institute of
Hydraulic Resources (INRH) told this reporter that, because of the
critical situation, plans also call for the indefinite closing of as
many pools and ornamental fountains as possible.

The measure, which has not been covered by the press, came as a shock to
Carlos, a self-employed worker who had planned to engage in this
activity, with capital from Miami, but is now eagerly seeking a locale
to set up a café. "It's always the same old story: those who first bear
the brunt are the self-employed, but the enormous number of leaks that
throughout the city are not fixed, and that's where the most water is
lost," he says, exasperated.

Since the middle of this year the government crackdown on the
construction of illegal pools and the expansion of car washes has been
constant. INRH Director Inés María Chapman explained to the National
Assembly in July of this year that "an inspection had been carried out
in Havana, and we found good and bad practices in the industry (car
washes), which we need to address to put an end to the violations." She
did not provide details, however, regarding what those irregularities were.

In September the Cuban television journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso, in
comments on the use of water, attacked car washes, condemning them as
the biggest wasters and stating that measures ought to be taken against
them.

The official statistics, however show that the main cause of the waste
and squandering of water is, in fact, the poor condition of Cuba's pipes
and conduits, which cause half the water pumped to be lost. One of the
INRH specialists indicated, at the Round Table held on 8 October
dedicated to the issue of the drought, that in the Cuban capital alone
more than 600 leaks are reported every day, caused by the poor condition
of the country's piping.

This comes in addition to the information provided to DIARIO DE CUBA by
the Cuban-Spanish joint venture Aguas de La Habana, which stated that
the foreign wing of this company, created in 2000, proposed solving the
limited volume in the residential sector and modernizing the capital's
pipes and conduits in order to charge the residential sector for that
service in a differentiated manner, thereby being able to raise the
wages of Aguas de La Habana workers. "But the INRH objected, arguing
that the water charges should be applied in an equitable fashion, and
they would take care of the repair and modernization of the pipes. But
all they've done so far has been to destroy the streets, and the
situation remains the same," he says.

The volume of water in the residential sector currently amounts to a
meager 9%, and there are no indications that this situation will improve
in the short term.

Source: The drought vs. the self employed | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1445015633_17544.html