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Official acknowledges more than 169,700 people hit by water shortages in Pinar del Río
Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman blamed the crisis on the blackouts and on the breakdown of 46 pumping units and six booster pumps, according to Martí Noticias. Activists in the province say some localities have gone more than a month without service and that the real number of those affected is higher.
More than 169,700 residents of Pinar del Río province are suffering severe interruptions in their drinking water supply, as Cuba's Deputy Prime Minister, Inés María Chapman, acknowledged. The authorities blamed the crisis on nationwide power cuts and on the breakdown of 46 pumping units and six booster pumps.
Residents interviewed by Martí Noticias say the shortage has stretched on for weeks across the province and that more people are affected than officially reported. In the village of San Diego de los Baños, in the municipality of Los Palacios, the outage has lasted more than a month. “The situation here is serious, extremely serious. We have had no water supply for more than a month, almost two months now. This has become routine, but it is widespread across the whole province,” activist Esteban Ajete said, in remarks translated by Yamacoa.
The shortage also reaches the provincial capital, where power cuts keep the turbines from running continuously. “Every people's council is affected. There are places with no water for 15 or 20 days, and in others it has been a bit longer,” said activist Roberto Blanco Gil, in remarks translated by Yamacoa, who believes the number of people affected is far higher than the figure released by the official.
With no state distribution, people turn to private water trucks. The service costs between 18,000 and 22,000 pesos, a price neighbors attribute to the need to buy fuel on the informal market; a tank with a capacity of 1,500 liters costs around 6,000 pesos. In the city of Pinar del Río, truck operators charge from 8,000 and 10,000 pesos, which forces residents to organize group purchases.
Ajete warned that those sums are out of reach for vulnerable groups and for retirees on minimum pensions of 2,000 pesos, in a context also marked by the lack of cash in state banks to pay out wages and pensions.
The activist also pointed to the deteriorating quality of the water drawn from private wells without treatment: “Water in the wells used to be chlorinated; that no longer exists. People are drinking water at whatever quality it happens to be, and that opens the door to all the diseases there are right now,” he said, in remarks translated by Yamacoa. Blanco Gil added that the lack of water makes it harder to cook food and to keep homes and state and private facilities clean.
Sources: Martí Noticias
Data updated: 2026-10-25T04:15:00.000Z