Cuban government gives priority to water and sanitation services to the population

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 28 (ACN) In the midst of the complex economic and financial context, the country guarantees water supply and sanitation services to the population, said Ines Maria Chapman Waugh, deputy prime minister of the Republic, today.

At the annual work meeting of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), she acknowledged that this system has fulfilled its task last year in spite of its multiple challenges and the effects of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States and the pandemic.
Regarding the latter, Antonio Rodriguez Rodriguez, president of the INRH, described the confrontation with the disease as a challenge, since they supplied the water for economic activities, as well as the necessary levels in hospitals and isolation centers, and in the biopharmaceutical industry for the elaboration of medicines.

In her opening remarks, the deputy PM urged to seek alternatives from science to replace imports of parts and equipment, to increase the efficiency of the agency and its companies and to work quickly on the priorities defined for 2022.

Chapman Waugh insisted on the need to increase the use of renewable energy sources in hydraulic resources, taking into account that this is one of the sectors that consumes the most electricity.

She called for the implementation from the territories of systems of supervision and control in relation to the population's complaints, which decreased in 2021 and more than 2,600 of them were solved.

Among the most important priorities in Havana are the rehabilitation works to eliminate the use of water pipes for the more than 7,000 inhabitants who still receive their water by this method, and the progress made in the works in flood areas.

Almost 500 works were concluded in 2021 to solve drought-related problems, shorten water supply cycles and sanitation works that benefited more than 1,184,000 Cubans.

The review meeting was also presided over by Eduardo Concepcion Morales, deputy head of the production and services department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Misael Rodriguez Llanes, top leader of the Construction Workers Union, in addition to INRH executives and managers.