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Power failure cuts off water to five Havana municipalities; INRH says only 32% get service
Aguas de La Habana reported on Thursday a major break in the 78-inch main from the Cuenca Sur source, after the 110 kV lines tripped, leaving five municipalities in the center of the capital without pumping, according to CiberCuba. On Tuesday, the INRH acknowledged that only 32% of the population supplied by the network is receiving service.
According to Aguas de La Habana's official channels as reported by CiberCuba, the tripping of the 110 kV lines at the Cuenca Sur source caused a total halt of pumping and a break at two points in the main 78-inch conduit. The municipalities affected are Plaza de la Revolución, Cerro, Diez de Octubre, Centro Habana and La Habana Vieja. The company said it would guarantee pumping to the Príncipe and Hermanos Ameijeiras hospitals and part of Centro Habana, and warned that "the rest of the territories will be affected," in remarks translated by Yamacoa. The interruption also reached La Fortuna, Capdevila, Mazorra and parts of Alta Habana, in Boyeros. It gave no timetable for recovery.
CiberCuba documents that this same conduit has broken repeatedly since 2024 through the same mechanism: when power is cut suddenly, the moving water generates water hammer, abrupt pressure swings that fracture the pipe. The pattern recurred in July and September 2024, in September 2025, in August 2026 and on several occasions this month. On October 6 the company had already announced scheduled interruptions in the same municipalities for work on Cuenca Sur.
On Tuesday, Alexis Acosta, vice president of the INRH's Water and Sanitation Business Group, acknowledged that only 32% of the population supplied by the network was receiving service, "partially or fully," with around 2.5 million residents affected. The institute itself has documented that power shortages and pump failures account for 88% of national water-shortage incidents and drought for only 4%. Between 80% and 85% of the water distributed in Cuba has to be pumped and the stations need 10 to 12 continuous hours of electricity, according to the figures cited by CiberCuba.
State media reported the same Wednesday on Miguel Díaz-Canel's visit to the Aguada del Cura supply source, in Boyeros, as part of the follow-up to the Comprehensive Program to Secure Havana's Water Supply. Among the problems diagnosed there, according to Cubadebate, are the deterioration of the civil infrastructure, the absence of automation at the distribution node, the wear of the conduit toward Santiago de las Vegas and electrical instability at the source. The municipality of Arroyo Naranjo was cited as a setting with progress, and Boyeros and Cotorro as the worst off for lack of pumping equipment.
Faced with the cuts, more and more residents are looking for their own solutions: in the La Playa neighborhood of Matanzas, the number of hand-dug wells went from 20 to more than 40 in a few months. "I never imagined I would have to dig a well, just as I never imagined I would have to cook with charcoal or install solar panels," Kevin Martínez, the owner of a restaurant in that city, told AFP in remarks translated by Yamacoa and reported by CiberCuba.
Sources: CiberCuba · Cubadebate
Data updated: 2026-10-22T17:15:00.000Z