To purify this vital liquid, Cuba currently buys replacement parts from distant markets at prices 30-40% higher than for what we could buy them in the United States.
The supply and quality of water for human consumption is currently one of the major health concerns in the world. Here too the blockade tries to sate its unhealthy thirst.
Recently, while speaking with engineers José Marrero Camacho—general director of Cubahidráulica—and Walter Parra Fernández— a specialist in the enterprise's technical directorate—they expressed confidence that, no matter what, the quality of Cuban drinking water is comparable to that of developed countries.
Certainly, upon re-reading some statistics put out by the National Institute of Water Resources at the close of 2002, I found corroborating data: that year 97.9% of the drinking water was treated. Further chlorination in the 1,728 existing installations (306 more than in 2001) reached 98.9%. The achievements are evident, but at what cost and with how much effort? The specialists pointed out that for many years Cuba bought treatment and chlorination equipment originating in North American firms, such as Wallace and Tiernan and The Capitol, by way of third countries.
We also acquired replacement parts the same way, they noted, but since 1993, when the Torricelli Law tightened the blockade, those doors were closed and we had to seek alternatives and new markets.
Currently replacement parts are acquired in far-away markets—Europe and Asia—and at prices as much as 30 to 40% higher. That which we could purchase in neighboring countries now comes to us from more than 8,000 kilometers away, bringing the intervention of new middlemen, increased shipping, insurance, and other additional costs, all of which has forced the country to lay out 1.35 billion dollars.
The impossibility of acquiring North American products, the engineers explained, has also brought about a change in technology. Among other things, it has forced us to work with millimeters rather than inches, and we've had to make special orders, since Europe works with 50 Hz and 220 volts, and Cuba with 60Hz and 110V. That is to say, our orders aren't standard and that increases the price and delivery time.
Also, the distance means high inventory levels. Products take no less than 15 days to get from Europe to Cuba, and adding in the time it takes to make the deals and shipping arrangements, we're looking at almost 60 or 70 days. This forces us to have inventories for at least 6 months, which means the physical aging of the merchandise, its accelerating deterioration and financial immobility.
The specialists stated that in spite of these adverse conditions our country hasn't stopped chlorinating the water, not even in the most critical moments of the special period. Because of our meager resources we look for alternatives: we use hypochlorides, or rather, equipment for applying hypochlorides from which we gotten water of very high quality. We've installed equipment from Europe, we've built desalinization plants in the cays (places where there isn't adequate supplies of pure water) and we've improved the pipes and aqueducts of the country, and we have besides applied a system of rural aqueducts by which we systematically supply chlorinated water to communities of less than 700 people.
We asked what it would mean if the blockade were eliminated. A nearby market with high quality products would bring cost reductions of 50%. With the remainder, they added, we could expand public service to localities that are still without aqueducts, keep them going 24 hours a day, and carry out new investments in technology aimed at raising the population's quality of life.
Translated for Global Exchange by Jared Simpson
