In the cramped kitchen of her flat in Havana’s Chinatown, Mirella Martínez pushes an old metal trolley stacked with empty jerrycans. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she fans herself gently. “It’s so hot!” she says, as the electric fans remain still due to another power outage that has left her flat sweltering in near darkness for hours.
Mirella Martínez’s flat in Havana has been without running water for nearly three years
In a few minutes, the 61-year-old former security guard will walk about half a miles to her daughter’s workplace, one of the few buildings nearby where water still flows regularly. For almost three years, the flat she shares with her three daughters and grandson has had no reliable running water.In Cuba, power cuts do more than leave people in the dark: they also leave taps dry. As the country’s energy crisis deepens, electricity shortages prevent many pumping stations from operating, while an ageing distribution network and chronic fuel shortages leave millions struggling to access water.The country’s energy crisis, already severe, worsened further earlier this year after the capture of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, by US forces. The suspension of oil exports from Venezuela, Cuba’s main fuel supplier, deepened fuel shortages already exacerbated by the US embargo and economic sanctions.
