Cuba's Worst Drought In 100+ Years Gets Worse - Reuters

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HAVANA - "Cuba's worst drought in a century has left one in six Cubans without running water and will get worse, a Cuban official warned on Friday, calling on the nation to save water.

The prolonged drought has hurt the Caribbean island's sugar and rice production and led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of head of cattle in the parched eastern provinces of Las Tunas, Camaguey and Holguin. "It is the worst drought our country has faced since 1901," Aymee Aguirre, vice president of the National Water Resources Institute, said in statements published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Aguirre said 2 million of Cuba's 11.2 million inhabitants have seen their taps run dry and now rely on tanker trucks for their water. Conditions will become critical in the coming months because rainfall in eastern Cuba is forecast to remain below average, she said.

Water levels in Cuba's 235 reservoirs have dropped to 32 percent of their capacity, and 42 of them are virtually dry, she said. Of the 73 reservoirs that directly supply urban areas, 15 are closed and 23 have only 120 days of water left. Even some outlying areas of Havana, the capital city of 3 million people, have seen their water mains run dry, she said."

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