Nature tends to be fickle. It either dries up land or floods it. Kills through thirst or drowns in torrential rains. Agriculture and livestock, but more yet, the earth's inhabitants need the supply of water, not so much in quantity but continuous.

Before 1959 Cuba was a country of very few reservoirs (about 48 million cubic meters of water). In 1963 a terrible hurricane hit - it claimed hundreds of lives and wrought havoc on the economy. Flora demonstrated the dire necessity of reservoirs of great quantities of water and as protection against flooding of coastal settlements.

This reason, as well as many others, gave way to a program of hydraulic development that demonstrated the will of the Revolutionary Government. With an accelerated rhythm large, medium and small (micro-dams) reservoirs were built in every province.

Aquiculture was still not thought of nor was this an unknown technology. Antecedents go back to 1911 revealing that the National Fishing Committee noted the importance of supporting the breeding of fish.

However, as a serious activity, it was not until the 1970s that it gained importance in the country. The levels of aquiculture production increased yearly and after about 10 years (1984) fisheries of the inland waters of Cuba rose to up to 14 thousand 600 tons.

The development of sweet water cultivation, in Cuba and the rest of the world, was the result of a new form of thought, with a look to the future (many fisheries were on the verge of collapse) and a conviction of a certain threat: marine resources were finite. Cuba looked to support from countries with a long tradition and work in the introduction of foreign species, a step that requires a careful study by the specialists.

Without going into too much detail, nutritional sources of the new species must be taken into consideration, its voracity and behavior (if it is capable of surviving with other species and which ones), its resistance to diseases, supply of meat, acceptance by the population and many other features.

For the Cubans it was, at one point, new but the important responsibility they took it upon themselves: to contribute to guarantee an adequate protein diet that deep sea fish, rapidly dwindling, cannot supply.

The development of cultivation in sweet water lead to the creation of a support infrastructure. There were the reservoirs, but laboratories and breeding centers were necessary. Thus young fish stations were created -- a sort of "maternity ward" -- in charge of obtaining the young fish, their feeding and right growth to be cast into the reservoirs.

As a result the trade of aquiculture appeared, undergone by men and women with a strong support of technical qualification of these workers. The experience acquired was reverted to teaching. Today the country has the Center of Aquicultural Preparation of Mampostón (CPAM in its Spanish abbreviation), in the municipality of San José de las Lajas, in the province of La Habana.

The CPAM is 16 hectares (39.5 acres) of crystalline waters set aside for research and teaching. Popularly known as the Cuban aquiculture university, this institution - school, laboratory and factory - offers courses to national and foreign technicians.

At different times and according to interest created for each case, species such as tenca, the tilapia, the amura or herbivorous carp, the colosoma, the buffalo fish and catfish. Some with greater or lesser success.

Now, returning to the reservoirs. Anyone looking out upon them gets the impression of watching an immense sea of quiet waters where fishing boats -- motor boats or row boats -- move about freely.

These interior seas, dotted along the Cuban landscape, permit the use of fishing and demand of the fishermen the fulfillment of the measures of protection, such as the life saving vest, as if they were on the high seas.

The capacity of reservoir in Cuba is about 10 billion cubic meters of water and, of the 168 in the country, 32 represent 50 % of capture from the extensive national aquiculture system -- given their size and characteristics. Exploitation of the reservoirs, also, is carefully programmed. This aquiculture permits the supply not only in the rationed quota but as part of the free sales market, to a considerable part of the population of the country.

It is also the raw material for the preparation of many products such as croquets, hamburgers, mortadella, minced, and fish patties among other variety of products. With volumes of production that are about 30 billion tons a year and constituting a source of jobs for thousands of workers, aquiculture is an efficient alternative for the growing nutritional demand of the Cuban population.