A rain that does not turn the fields green

“Come here,” Diosdado Vera invites us over and points to an old bathtub that serves as a drinking fountain for the cows. In the container there is still a little water where you can see traces of a viscous substance. Since Sunday in Cuba’s Yumurí Valley, where this 89-year-old peasant lives, the inhabitants have seen an unusual substance that fell along with the rain that day.

Diosdado says that he no longer allows his animals to drink from the bathtub for fear that they will become intoxicated and die, although up to this minute no death has been reported as a result of this situation. However, the veteran peasant prefers to foresee any fatal outcome.

“It is not normal for the water that accumulates in puddles on the side of the road to darken and for one to come home with shoes stained with that substance.”

He points to the edge of the portal and shows how the blackish has settled on this spot. Even the rock in front of the entrance darkened.

Very close to the junction of Mena, a town in the Valley, there are also stories that confirm the fall from the sky of these substances after Sunday’s drizzle.

A certain distance from Diosdado lives his daughter, Olga Lidia, who washed her clothes that day and verified the imprint of this unusual phenomenon on her clothes.

“That day, as soon as I got ready to hang the clothing, it started to drizzle and I instinctively tried to wipe off the drops that fell on my arm. Without realizing it I rubbed my skin and in a matter of seconds I was covered with something that for me was oil. I ran out to take a bath.”

Several towels retain traces of the liquid that fell with the drizzle. “My clothes are splattered and the stains do not come off.”

For her husband, Enrique Viera García, the situation is worrisome. His crops show the blackish traces and he fears it will affect his plants. As he tries to pick up a pumpkin stem to display the remains of this unknown material, his hands darken.

On the base of his house, where he has a dovecote, you can also see the dark spots after the accumulation of rain.

Of course they know the cause. Since the accident at the Matanzas Industrial Zone, a black cloud has remained over his head, as Olga Lidia explains it.

From anywhere in the city you can see how the northeast wind directs the great column of smoke towards the Yumurí Valley.

On this subject, the recent declarations of Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, Minister of the CITMA [Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment] of Cuba, confirm the danger of contamination due to the increasing gas emissions.

“There are approximately 3,200 particles in the air right now. The cloud has sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, among other substances, that are falling on Matanzas, Mayabeque, and Havana.”

“Fundamentally these substances are [found] four or five kilometers high. When will there be a problem? The problem is if it rains, because those particles descend with the rain. Now these concentrations are at the height and no effects on human life have been reported.”

CITMA authorities suggest that whether it rains or not, the face mask must be maintained and that vulnerable people should not expose themselves to the open air if the cloud is visible.

At this time, experts are analyzing the environmental impact that this disaster can generate, although the inhabitants of the Yumurí Valley have witnessed, for the first time, a rain that does not turn the fields green.

Courtesy of Periodico Girón. Translated to English by Progreso Weekly.

Photos by Julio César García.