Water Management
Between Drought and Floods, Cuba
Seeks to Improve Water Management
By Patricia Grogg
A medium-density polyethylene( MDPE) pipe is set to be installed on a centrally located avenue in the municipality of Centro Habana, which will be part of the new water supply grid for residents of the Cuban capital. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
HAVANA, Sep 15 2018( IPS)- If you enjoy a good daily shower and water comes out every time you turn on the taps in your home, you should feel privileged. There are places in the world where this vital resource for life is becoming scarcer by the day and the forecasts for the future are grim.
A study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration( NASA), which covers the period 2003- 2013, shows that the world’ s largest underground aquifers are being depleted at an alarming rate as a result of more water being withdrawn than can be replenished.
“ The situation is quite critical,” NASA scientist Jay Famiglietti has said, when discussing the subject in specialized publications in the U. S. In the opinion of this expert the problems with groundwater are aggravated by global warming due to the phenomenon of climate change.
Far from diminishing, the impact of climate variations is also felt in greater changes in rainfall patterns, with serious consequences for Caribbean nations that are dependent on rainfall. In Cuba and other Caribbean island countries, in particular, periods of drought have become more intense.
“ There is a gradual decrease in water availability due to reduced rainfall, deteriorating water quality and greater evaporation due to rising temperatures,” Antonio Rodríguez, vice-president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources( INRH), told IPS in an interview.
Hurricane Irma, which in September 2017 tore almost through the entire Cuban archipelago, contributed to the relief of a drought that kept the country’ s people and fields thirsty for nearly four years. The current rainy season, which will last until November, began in May with Subtropical Storm Alberto with high levels of rainfall that will continue.
“ We have been able to show that climate change is real. We lived through 38 months of intense drought and then we had rains well above average,” said Rodrìguez.
The intense rains associated with Alberto, which hit Cuba in the last week of May, caused eight deaths due to drowning and serious economic damage in several provinces, but at the same time considerably increased the reserves in the 242 reservoirs controlled by the INRH, the government agency in charge of Cuba’ s water resources.
Tarea Vida, the official plan to deal with climate change in force since last year, warns that the average sea level has risen 6.77 cm to date, and could rise 27 cm by 2050 and 85 by 2100, which would cause the gradual loss of land in low-lying coastal areas.
A team of workers from the Aguas de La Habana water company work on the replacement of the sewage system in the Vedado neighbourhood in the Cuban capital. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
In addition, there could be“ a salinization of underground aquifers opened up to the sea due to saline wedge intrusion.” For now,“ of the 101 aquifers controlled by the INRH, 100 are in a very favourable state,” Rodríguez said. These sources also suffered the impact of the drought, but recovered with the rains after Hurricane Irma.
In this context, the inefficient use of water, due to the technical condition and inadequate functioning of the
16 Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • September 2018