Cuba’s Water Strategy Praised by UN Organization

The Cuban strategy for dealing with water shortages is very sensible and its greatest challenge is to use it with more efficiency, said Francisco Arias Milla, representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Cuba.

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Cuba’s role in the international debate to establish access to water as a right was highlighted by UNDP Resident Representative in Cuba Dr. Susan MacDade, when she presented the 2006 Human Development Report. McDade said that the main issue in this year’s document will be growing challenges posed by climatic change.

Aymee Aguirre, vice-president of Cuba’s National Hydraulic Resources Institute, explained that amid the current panorama with limited water resources, 96 percent of the Cuban population has access to drinking water.

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Osvaldo Martinez, director of the World Economy Research Center, pointed out that Latin America possesses 31 percent of the planet’s water resources and 8.5 percent of the world’s population. He said that this favorable ratio should be defended against attempts to privatize water resources by transnational corporations.