A meeting to analyze the action plan for confronting the worsening energy and water supply situation across the national territory was held this Thursday afternoon at the Palace of the Revolution. The meeting was led by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz.

All possible communication channels will be highly valid. Any opportunity to explain, to inform, to create synergies that lead faster to solutions is relevant in today's Cuba; because, beyond all the difficult circumstances, there is always a threshold that has to do with the will and the spiritual reserves of its women and men.

This certainty set the tone for the meeting held this Thursday afternoon at the Palace of the Revolution—led by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz—to analyze the plan of actions to confront the worsening energy situation and water supply across the national territory.

Via videoconference, the country's leadership was able to exchange with all the provinces and the Special Municipality of Isla de la Juventud. Before these exchanges, an update on the current situation and prospects of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) and the water supply to the population took place.

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, stated that, as has been explained in recent days through various media, the situation regarding the SEN is complex, a panorama that was aggravated by the outage of the Felton thermoelectric plant, where the generator failure was finally identified: “Work is being done on the generator,” the minister said; “and at this moment it is being closed up to be synchronized back into the System.”

Vicente de la O Levy stated that Felton should be back online by Saturday, and its inclusion would mean adding more than 200 MW to the SEN. The expert also explained that alongside the thermoelectric plant, a facility in Mariel, of more than 100 MW, had also gone offline, and that after repairs, “that facility has already been incorporated and that capacity has been recovered.”

In the coming days, he detailed, other subsystems should come online, and with these additions, he said, “we should return to the situation we had previously: of major disruptions during the evening peak hours, but with a considerable reduction (of the generation deficit) during the day, below a thousand MW.”

The minister commented that there have been no major issues regarding fuel supply, that this front has been resolved through various alternatives, and that work continues on important tasks such as the repair of transformers, “covering the daily faults,” while also focusing on the manufacture of new ones.

Regarding the water supply, it was learned at Thursday's meeting that the most significant causes of the disruption are related to the lack of electricity (which causes 50% of the problems), drought (which causes 32% of the difficulties), and broken pumping equipment (which causes 10% of the current complex situation).

From Santiago de Cuba province, the President of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez, described everything being done to alleviate the tense reality they face with the water supply: quick actions are being designed to make more water available; work is being done on pumping equipment for the city and other areas; important pumping stations are scheduled for inspection; and possible projects to improve the water supply are being analyzed.

Every alternative is being considered, as Antonio Rodríguez reflected: water trucks; the activation of wells; points of easy access to the precious liquid; the possibility, even, of transporting water by rail. And the official spoke of something essential: “Wherever we go, we are exchanging with the population. On the ground, listening to their opinions, explaining the situation we have, the things that are being done.”

Through the voices of the First Secretaries of each territory, the country's leadership received a detailed update on how action plans to confront the worsening energy and water supply situation are being developed and executed. The common points in the approach being taken are systematicity, daily checks—often several times a day in many places—and the incessant search for alternatives to find solutions.

In Havana, for example, the permanent monitoring of these two services that impact the population is a priority. They are working jointly with managers and experts; all possible means of communication are being sought; and the decision has been made to mobilize the District Delegates, because nothing will be more effective than house-to-house explanations at the community level.

This is what the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Granma province, Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, said in the videoconference: Nothing surpasses “the direct contact with the people,” the will for “outreach in the communities, providing information, explaining, making contact where there is a larger concentration of population.”

The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, assessed that there is clarity about “the problems we are facing.” Here we are, he said, “more concentrated on the National Electric System, on the water disruptions, but we are also aware of the rest of the issues—of food, medicine, transportation, to name a few.”

The Head of Government referred to the work being done in the provinces and the time dedicated in each territory to the effort of mitigating the difficulties. And he did not overlook the cardinal importance of communication at a time like this. He referred to more than one channel for it; and he stressed the value of “going to the community,” of “speaking directly with the people” as the most effective method.

Reflecting that visits to the provinces have shown how some advance more than others in solving problems, he emphasized the need to “review the work systems,” and to “establish, within the little that we have, what the priorities are.” These are times, he said, “to see how, even in complex circumstances, we do things differently; and above all alongside the population, there, constantly informing.”

Toward the end of the analysis, President Díaz-Canel Bermúdez described the situation the country is experiencing, which in recent days has been marked by a context of contingencies. The dignitary underlined that, despite the “quantity and intensity of the successive anti-Cuban campaigns,” the enemy has not managed “to capitalize on social discontent and steer it toward its interests of social explosion.”

The above, expressed the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, “shows us that the enemy is constantly lying in wait, with a slanderous discourse, a lying discourse, a manipulative discourse, because they are not interested in solving any of these problems that we are all addressing together, amid these difficult circumstances affecting our people.”

In contrast to these threats, there is the strength—of which the president spoke in the meeting—of how “the population understands the situation we are living through and what the true cause of this situation is.” The Head of State also referred to “the cohesion that exists between the Party, the Government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, the Union of Young Communists, the mass organizations, and the population”; and he did not overlook “the immediate response from the electrical workers,” who worked “with great professionalism, with great audacity, and with great responsibility.”

Díaz-Canel stressed the importance of debate with the population, the style of explaining and listening. And he highlighted that Cuban society has spaces designed and organized to encourage this debate. He also emphasized the value of increasing revolutionary vigilance in these times; and of knowing how to adapt, according to each circumstance, the methods of confronting criminal acts that damage the country's vital resources.

Regarding the much-needed communication, he recalled that it is also the kind done person to person, in every scenario. “Everything must be explained, every day,” he said. And he highlighted the value of being aware, with agility, of the population's state of opinion.

After analyzing the international context, the tensions lived by Our America due to an empire that seeks to impose peace through the path of force, after addressing other sensitive issues like the impact of a blockade that is increasingly costly and devastating for the Cuban people, President Díaz-Canel shared his conviction that “we will move forward,” and that one day, having overcome these moments, we will be able to look back on these bitter days and the ways in which we overcame them.

He spoke of the terrible caliber with which they have shot to kill, and of how we are still here. Faced with the fortitude of a people who remain united and standing, the dignitary stated a conviction that not even the most perverse machinations in this world can dismantle: “Here,” he said, “no one will surrender.”