BAYAMO, Cuba, Sep 09 (IPS) – In a single day, tons of of individuals within the rural neighborhood of Las Mangas, situated in Granma province in japanese Cuba, realised one thing that they had already suspected: that the water that they had been consuming for many years was not precisely crystal clear, however quite “salty”, as they are saying.
It was definitely a constructive change, due to a desalination plant that began working in August, 5 years after building started in 2019, with a US$ 61,000 funding by the Granma Provincial Delegation of Hydraulic Sources.
“We did a take a look at and the water coming from the plant freezes clear, whereas the water from the road freezes white, due to impurities. Now, with the plant, the persons are comfortable,” neighborhood consultant Rodolfo Echavarría, 55, advised IPS.
Las Mangas is a part of the municipality of Bayamo, the provincial capital, some 740 kilometres east of Havana. It has water networks that carry water from a properly to the connections within the homes.
Nevertheless, the water supply accommodates a salinity fee exceeding one gram of soluble salts per litre of water, the restrict permitted for human consumption by the nation’s well being authorities.
“The desalination plant was constructed on the outlet of this brackish properly, serving as an quick access level (the place individuals can fetch the processed liquid with containers),” defined Yasser Vázquez, deputy sub-delegate of the Water Sources Delegation in Granma, in an interview with IPS in Bayamo.
The brand new facility, the third of its sort within the province, processes 2,000 litres of water a day and, in keeping with the planners’ estimates, advantages 1,097 inhabitants. Echavarría believes that quantity rises to virtually 2,000 individuals, because the villages of El Chungo, La Bayamesa and Santa María, all greater than three kilometres from Las Mangas, additionally profit.
The plant’s purification system makes use of the reverse osmosis technique, one of the crucial widespread globally. There are others akin to distillation, freezing, hydrate formation, flash evaporation or electrodialysis.
Reverse osmosis entails making use of strain to brackish water and making it movement by way of a semi-permeable membrane whose position is to permit the solvent (water) to move by way of, however not the solute (dissolved salts).
In essence, the water in a pressurised saline resolution is separated from the dissolved salts because it passes by way of the membrane after which goes by way of additional rounds of filtration and chemical injection till it reaches the required requirements of potability.
An area resident, Yoel González, 52, was skilled to function the plant and is in control of its upkeep.
“It’s important to know the way it works, as a result of there are issues that may go flawed, as has occurred. I’ve lived all my life in Las Mangas and the very best factor that has occurred right here is that this (the set up of the desalination plant). Water has at all times been tough. We used to drink that brackish water, and you possibly can style the acid and salt in it,” he advised IPS.
A change of surroundings, or quite, of waters
On this village eight kilometres from town of Bayamo, between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm, when the desalination plant opens, individuals collect on the website’s solely present faucet and fill various-sized containers.
The water popping out of the faucet in each residence or facility in Las Mangas, the brackish water that hardly comes out of the properly chlorinated, is just used for cleansing, dishes, laundry and generally cooking. On this agricultural and livestock farming village, some farmers additionally use it to quench their animals’ thirst.
“When the plant was arrange, individuals mentioned initially: ‘I drink it from the road, I have been consuming all of it my life and I have never died’. Cubans are like that. However once they tried the brand new one, all the pieces modified,” argued Echavarría, the neighborhood chief.
Nancy Gómez, 72, was born there and is likely one of the few individuals who resists the change.
“The neighbours are stunned as a result of I do not search for recent water, however I am used to it and it has by no means prompted me any well being issues. My youngsters grew up consuming that (brackish) water. However my granddaughter does carry it from the plant for the youngsters and I drink it on occasion. You may style the distinction,” she advised IPS.
Oscar Fajardo, 50, has at all times averted consuming water from the properly since he moved to Las Mangas 4 years in the past from Guasimilla, eight kilometres away.
In his residence city, the water tasted recent and “candy”, so he by no means acquired used to the brand new saltiness. Even after transferring away, Fajardo nonetheless fetched it in Guasimilla on his electrical motorcycle each time he visited his mom.
“I’d search for water there or in different places. Generally I needed to drink the dangerous one, however after seeing the sediment that collected within the knobs and pots, I attempted to keep away from it. Individuals right here have tailored to consuming brackish water, however a number of discovered other ways,” he advised IPS.
Whereas it was frequent to boil and drink the faucet water, some individuals who knew higher or had extra money would go to Bayamo or El Chungo to fill their very own family containers, or purchase the liquid from house owners of horse-drawn carts, who would promote 200 litres for the equal of US$ 0.40.
“The desalination plant is a superb profit, a marvel. If one thing as obligatory as water isn’t good, think about the harm it causes to well being,” mentioned Fajardo.
Risks of salinated water
The dangers of consuming water with extra salt are different: upset abdomen, dehydration, hypertension, fluid retention within the physique or kidney harm.
In spite of everything, salt accommodates, along with the chloride electrolyte, sodium, a mineral dangerous to the human physique in some ways when ingested in massive portions.
The World Well being Organisation (WHO) recommends an consumption of not more than 5 grams of salt per day, equal to 2 grams (2000 mg) of sodium.
González, the operator of the Las Mangas desalination plant, mentioned the neighborhood has a number of circumstances of kidney stones (additionally referred to as nephrolithiasis or urolithiasis), that are exhausting deposits product of minerals and salts that type contained in the kidneys and may have an effect on any a part of the urinary tract.
They might have arisen from extended consumption of brackish water, as a number of villagers interviewed by IPS suspect.
“One in all my youngsters complains when he urinates due to the stones, and he will get renal colics on a regular basis,” mentioned Gómez, the resident who’s reluctant to drink the water processed by the plant.
Marisol Hildago, 37, additionally a resident of Las Mangas and mom of two, used to drink faucet water till one thing prompted her to begin on the lookout for water from El Chungo.
“My father suffered from continual renal insufficiency and that is why I began to search for water there. Now we solely drink water from the plant and my father has improved,” she advised IPS.
Water points within the province
Las Mangas isn’t the one neighborhood in Granma with water-related points. There are others the place the subsurface basins and water sources have excessive ranges of salinity, which frequently obtain consuming water from tanker vans.
Granma, referred to as the ‘Key to the Cauto’ (river), the place the longest watercourse in all of the Antilles flows at 343 kilometres, additionally has a low-isometric aid and boggy areas, which makes it extra weak to seawater encroachment and saline intrusion into the water desk, as occurs in Las Mangas and different locations.
Some students declare that the river’s movement has decreased partly on account of local weather change, deforestation and the development of the Cauto del Paso reservoir, the third largest within the nation and inaugurated in 1992.
With the decreasing of the river stage, seawater encroaches with better drive by way of the course itself, affecting the water basins of some lands on the mouth of the Cauto.
This province with 804,000 individuals – in a rustic with a inhabitants of 10 million – has had a secure water scenario with its provide sources because the heavy rains of June 2023, which, along with filling reservoirs and restoring the water desk, destroyed a part of the infrastructure.
Granma usually suffers from droughts which, in keeping with water authorities, have an effect on as much as 100,000 of its inhabitants.
When this occurs, river movement decreases and saline intrusion from the ocean will increase, disabling quite a few wells, particularly the shallower, artisanal ones, that are an answer for residents in locations which are tough to entry.
The opposite main drawback lies within the accessibility of water networks and the provision of the service, as solely 76% of the province’s inhabitants receives piped water of their properties and solely 38.7% (some 310,000 individuals) obtain water at residence at the least as soon as each three days.
Different extra affected areas, such because the coastal municipality of Manzanillo, can get water provides for as much as 20 days. In all, greater than 66,000 residents are provided by water tankers.
An additional 15 desalination vegetation are deliberate for Granma, to be added to the handfuls present all through the nation. Within the final decade, the Cuban authorities has promoted the development of those hydraulic works, each in communities with salinised water sources and in industries and seashore resorts.
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