Water supply and sanitation in Cuba
Encyclopedia
| Cuba Cuba The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city... : Water and Sanitation |
|---|
}}
|-
!align="center" bgcolor="lightblue" colspan="3"|Data
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Water coverage (broad definition)
|valign="top"| 91%
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Sanitation coverage (broad definition)
|valign="top"| 98%
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Continuity of supply
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Average urban water use (l/c/d)
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Average urban residential water tariff (US$/m3)
|valign="top"| 0.04
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Share of metering
|valign="top"| very low
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Annual investment in WSS
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Share of self-financing by utilities
|valign="top"| nil
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Share of tax-financing
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Share of external financing
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
!align="center" bgcolor="lightblue" colspan="3"|Institutions
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Decentralization to municipalities
|valign="top"| Yes
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|National water and sanitation company
|valign="top"| Yes (not for service provision)
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Water and sanitation regulator
|valign="top"| No
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Responsibility for policy setting
|valign="top"| various Ministries
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Sector law
|valign="top"| No
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Number of urban service providers
|valign="top"| 140 (?)
|-
!align="left" valign="top"|Number of rural service providers
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
|}
Water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
and sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
is characterized by a high level of access, but at limited quality of service. A state-owned enterprise is in charge or providing services throughout the country within the country's socialist, centrally planned Cuban economic system. As a surprising exception in a Socialist country, a mixed public-private company with partial foreign ownership provides services in parts of Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
.
Access
In 2000 about 91% of Cubans had access to an improved source of water (95% of the urban population, but only 78% of the rural population). Unusually, access to adequate sanitation is higher than access to an improved source of water at a rate of 98% (99% of the urban population and 95% of the rural population).Cuba's access to adequate sanitation thus is the second-highest in Latin America and the Caribbean after Uruguay. Access to improved water supply in Cuba, however, is the same as the average for the region.
Service quality
There is no systematic information on the quality of water and sanitation services in Cuba. In some parts of the country, such as in Santiago de Cuba, residents at times go without water for as much as 20 days. Water is not reliably chlorinated, partly due to the unavailability of chlorine. As a result, residents receive water that is not safe to drink and have to store it in their homes, which further increases the risk of contamination. Some households have to resort sand filters to treat water in their homes.In 2000 between 42,000 and 90,000 residents of Havana, according to various sources quoted in the reference below, had to receive water in tanker trucks, because the antiquated water supply system was unable to provide them with water. Since then, the system has been repaired and this number has been considerably reduced.
According to a report by the “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba” to the US President there are only five wastewater treatment plants in Cuba that are “inoperative”, providing “some degree of treatment” to only four percent of collected wastewater, the remainder being discharged without treatment.
National Water Resources Institute
The National Water Resources Institute (Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidraulicos, INRH) is in charge of “directing, executing and controlling the application” of the government’s water resources activities. In addition to its attributions in water resources management, it is also in charge of setting norms for and controlling activities in water supply and sanitation. De facto it also provides water supply and sanitation services through “enterprises” that are part of the INRH group. INRH also operates 241 dams and 175 small hydropower plants with an installed total capacity of 14 MW.INRH proposes water and sanitation policies to the Cabinet. Ministries involved in the sector include the Ministry of Economy and Planning (investment planning), the Ministry of Health (monitoring water and wastewater quality), the Ministry of Financing and Prices (setting of recurrent cost budgets and tariffs) and the Ministry of Construction (construction of infrastructure through water and sanitation construction brigades).
INRH was created in 1989, taking the place of an entity bearing the same name that was created in 1962. In 2000 it was restructured to reflect a focus on “business management”, which involved the creation of business units. The INRH group now includes 4 enterprise groupings and 5 independent enterprises. One of the enterprise groupings covers 19 regional water and sanitation companies. Another one includes a range of construction companies, and one groups engineering design companies. All these “enterprises” are state-owned enterprises within the socialist, centrally planned Cuban economic system.
Local government
Service provision is the responsibility of the country's 14 provinces and 140 municipalities through their respective water and sanitation directorates, except in the case of 12 municipalities in Habana. The capital Havana is administratively divided in 15 municipalities, but has a single mayor.There are 3,220 rural water systems in Cuba.