Cuban Local Authorities Strengthen Control of Water Distribution

The drought hitting Cuba for over a year now forced Ciego de Avila’s local authorities to strengthen measures to further control the rational use of drinking water.  A new schedule for the pumping of the liquid to residential and economic areas in the northern and western region of the city was established, announced Sergio Barrios, provincial representative of the Water Resources office.

The measure is part of a program implemented by the Provincial Administration Council seeking to protect the province’s aquifer, which is one of the most important in the country. Fifteen hydrogeological sectors are under a warning due to the effects of the drought that has affected the country since November 2008 and was intensified in 2009.

In addition to the weather conditions, Barrios mentioned the waste of water by consumers and leakages in old pipelines have caused a drop in the amount of collected water.

 The pumping hours in 13 water pumping stations supplying agricultural plantations were also regulated, said the Agriculture delegate Emilio Varela. Varela added that all agricultural enterprises and cooperative units have been demanded to extreme actions to make irrigation more efficient.

The five water reservoirs are filled only to their 32 percent total, one of them is filled only to the seven percent of its full capacity. The lack of rains have caused a drop in the production of plantain,sugar cane and milk, and water tankers have had to be sent to cattle raiding farms in certain communities.

Related news: Cuba: lanzan campaña en favor del ahorro de agua, Boletin de Noticias, 27 May 2010

Source: Cuban Daily news, 21 Jun 2010

Dominican Republic: hospitals facing water shortages due to drought

Hospitals in the Dominican Republic are experiencing water shortages due to the severe drought affecting the country. Some hospitals are even having to buy water from private firms which sell water from trucks. Other health institutions have requested assistance from the capital Santo Domingo’s water utility Caasd.

Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 08 Apr 2010

Trinidad & Tobago: water authority considering clampdown on bottled water firms

Trinidad & Tobago’s water and sewerage authority (WASA) is considering a clampdown on bottled water companies in the light of the drought affecting the country. If the water shortage worsens, WASA will suspend water extraction from wells used by bottled water firms

Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 18 Mar 2010

Honduras, Tegucigalpa: Sanaa using deepwater wells to increase water supply

Honduran water authority Sanaa has started operating three deepwater wells to increase water supply to the inhabitants of capital Tegucigalpa. A drought is  affecting Tegucigalpa due to the climate phenomenon El Niño . Sanaa will also increase water rationing.

In February 2010, local paper El Heraldo reported that Sanaa was considering using cloud seeding to induce rain to combat the severe drought.

Read full articles on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 10 Mar 2010 ; BNamericas.com, 08 Feb 2010

Honduras, Tegucigalpa: Sanaa implements measures to combat drought

Water levels at the Los Laureles and La Concepción reservoirs, serving Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, are low and dropping fast. To combat the situation, Sanaa has implemented permanent water rationing in the capital and is fining people found stealing water from the system.

Read the full article on: Indiana Corrales, BNamericas.com [subscription site], 12 Jan 2010

Honduras: water rationing will increase, says Sanaa

Honduran national water authority Sanaa will increase water rationing throughout Honduras during 2010 due to the severe drought affecting the country. Some departments are currently receiving water once every three days, and Sanaa expects to begin increasing water cuts in January 2010.

Read the full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 18 Dec 2009

Bolivia: Govt needs to invest US$1bn to combat drought – minister

Bolivia needs to invest US$1bn to build water treatment plants and in other projects to overcome water shortage problems during the next seven years, according to environment and water minister René Orellana. Insufficient rainfall, caused by climate change, is affecting farming activities in different regions.

Read the full article in BNamericas.com [subscription site], 11 Nov 2009

Venezuela, Caracas: water rationing is politically motivated, opposition says

Venezuelan authorities have announced a water rationing plan for capital Caracas, the environment ministry (Minamb) said. The opposition says the government is using the water cuts to drive them into exile.

Minamb says rationing is needed to increase water reserves and guarantee sufficient supply for the city’s population.

Restrictions started on 2 November 2009 and consist of a series of programmed cuts to the water supply. These cuts will not last longer than 48 hours, Minamb said.

During the rainy season, from May to October, rainfall was 30% below average due to the El Niño climate phenomenon. This affected water levels in reservoirs such as El Lagartijo, whose current level is at 4Mm3, compared to the average 30Mm3 it should have at this time of year.

One of the greatest problems the city faces is cultural, as citizens consume much more water than they need: “We are producing water for twice the amount of citizens we supply, and this is due to waste,” environment minister Yuvirí Ortega said.

The magnitude of the drought is not as large as the one in 2003, when the Camatagua reservoir dried up, Ortega said.

Even schools will have to deal with the water shortages, the government said. Only hospitals will be equipped with water around the clock.

The water rationing is a bit surprising according to BNamericas, because in July 2009, the president of public water utility Hidrocapital, Alejandro Hitcher, said that rainfall in that month guaranteed potable water supply in the city for the next year.

The opposition is accusing Chavez of limiting water use as a “democratic” way of driving them into exile. The opposition is expected to win the upcoming 2010 legislative elections and Chávez has already warned citizens about the violence that will break out if his party does not obtain a majority.

The water cuts will not only lead to general panic but will also affect the economy, as restaurants, clubs and all sorts of services will be forced to curtail activities, a member of opposition party Acción Democrática (AD) told BNamericas. The AD member added that the government is limiting citizens’ capacity to store water on the days it is not available.

“They are monitoring the amount of water that we use on a daily basis and, if this increases, they will shut down our service. In other words, they are not letting us store any water, because storing would boost consumption on the days previous to the weekly cuts,” the AD member said.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 27 Oct 2009 ; CNN, 03 Nov 2009 ; Eva Medalla, BNamericas.com [subscription site], 05 Nov 2009

Mexico, Mexico City: new tariffs to penalize water waste

Mexico’s federal district (DF) government has proposed an increase in water tariffs for people who consume more than 20m3/m. The measure aims to avoid water waste in the city, in accordance with the government policy to reduce total consumption by 20%. People who consume less than 20m3/m will not be affected, which means the cost of water will still be much lower than in other parts of the country.

The situation in the Cutzamala system reservoirs, which provide more than 20% of the water consumed daily in the Mexico valley metropolitan area, is still serious, despite heavy rainfall over the past few days. While 45Mm3 of water has been recovered in the reservoirs, 35Mm3 of that is due to water rationing in the Mexico valley area.

As of 25 August 2009, 32% of Mexico’s main reservoirs were filled to below 39% capacity, a situation that is likely to peak in 1Q10.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 29 Sep 2009