Cuba’s Matanzas province works to counter drought

Matanzas, Cuba, Mar 15 (Prensa Latina) The monitoring of undeground waters and the storage volumes in dams are actions on which the Cuban province of Matanzas is working to counter the current drought.

According to Javier Romero, technical director of the provincial delegation of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), in the first two months of the year, Matanzas reported accumulated rainfalls of 10.3 millimeters only, a figure much lower than the historic average of 100 mm.

February was Matanzas’s least rainy month in the last 42 years and in the country as a whole, that behavior was similar, with rainfalls below expectations, he said.

Romero explained that in view of the lack of rainfalls, the province is monitoring the underground waters, which total 600 million cubic meters and it is estimated that even if the drought lasts, it will not have a significant effect on the different actions that are being carried out with them.

Regarding the volumes of the dams, there are 113 million cubic hectometers stored for a 59-percent of filling, a record higher than the country’s average which is set at 46 percent, which shows that despite the severe drought, Matanzas can assimilate it without complications, he said.