His restaurant in Matanzas province, 100 km east of Havana, was repeatedly forced to close because there was no running water. Like many businesses, he has been hit by a chain reaction caused by Cuba's energy shortage, which authorities link to the U.S. energy blockade. Prolonged blackouts have become normal, and because 80 to 85% of water supplied in Cuba must be pumped with electric turbines, power cuts directly cut water supply. Martinez said he never imagined he would have to dig a well, cook with coal, or install solar panels to stay open. Though drilling was “a bit expensive”, it frees him from paying for water truck deliveries three times a week.

He is far from alone. Nearly 29% of Cuba's 9.4 million people are affected, according to official figures, with the situation worsening sharply since January. Yunior Gonzalez, a senior official at the national water company, told AFP that water does not reach the homes of 2.7 million Cubans. Equipment breakdowns, leaks, and drought have made it worse. For many, getting water is now a daily physical struggle. Cubans haul it long distances using wheelbarrows, bicycles, car trunks, and horse-drawn carts. In Old Havana, 30-year-old Maykel Aguilar fills a 200-liter tank and buckets from a pipe connected to a spring, then wheelbarrows it home and carries it upstairs. He says one trip covers laundry, cleaning, and cooking - then it’s gone. Neighbors queue with tanks and jerrycans. Mother-of-two Yusimy Guerra, 40, calls it “a daily struggle” amid everyday outages. The scarcity adds to runaway inflation and shortages of food and medicine, fueling social unrest, including recent women-led protests over water in Havana municipalities. More Cubans are drilling private wells, building cisterns, installing tanks, or using so-called “water thieves” - pumps that pull the trickle from the mains into their homes, which can lower network pressure for neighbors. Well-digger Elizardo Cardoso, who struck water ten meters down at Martinez’s restaurant, says demand is high. The government says it is shifting water infrastructure away from the unreliable national grid: more than 870 of 1,300 planned solar-powered pumps are installed, helping 500,000 people, and Havana’s key Albear Aqueduct has two large diesel backup generators. Gonzalez admits, though, “they are very expensive programs”. (Bssnews)