Thousands of evacuees return home
Cuban
Radar Read Spanish Version
Thousands
of evacuees
return home
A
Service by the Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau
The
province of Granma, in Cuba’s eastern region, was perhaps the most
affected by the overflowing of rivers, particularly the Cauto, Cuba’s
longest river, due to the recent heavy rains. Practically all the
inhabitants of Río Cauto Municipality were evacuated to other
cities, but have begun to return. According to official reports, Río
Cauto is already in the midst of a sanitizing campaign and
reconstruction with building materials for home repairs have begun to
arrive.
Radio
Habana Cuba (RHC) reported that Santiago de Cuba has shipped 13,000
of the agreed upon 45,000 fiber-cement roofing sections to Granma.
Camagüey shipped over 44,000 fiber-asphalt roofing sections,
while 30 tons of steel have arrived from Havana and Las Tunas
provinces. RHC also reports that social workers are making an
inventory of home electrical appliances, mattresses and other goods
that were lost because of the flooding.
Holguín
repairing roads
The
fierce and persistent rains of last October, together with the
downpours that accompanied tropical storm Noel, practically collapsed
the highway and road system in the province of Holguín, some
700 km east of Havana.
According
to the provincial newspaper Ahora,
official
sources said that some 5,000 km of roads were damaged and some areas
of the province were cut off among themselves and from neighboring
Santiago de Cuba province.
The
greatest effort is being made in the recovery of roads and in other
cases in opening provisional roads.
Other
reports indicate that the more than 3,000 breakdowns in the
electrical grid were repaired and farmers are working to save as much
of the 10,000 tons of lost agricultural products as possible.
In
relation to sugar cane fields, the main task is to drain some 20,000
flooded hectares.
Ahora’s
digital version reported that repair of 4,000 damaged houses has
begun.
High
official of China’s Communist Party visits Cuba
An
official communiqué published on October 13 in all Cuban media
informed of the arrival at Havana of a delegation headed by Wang
Zhaoguo, member of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Politburo.
According
to Granma
daily, Wang Zhaoguo, who is also a vice-president of the National
Popular Assembly’s Permanent Committee and president of China’s
National Federation of Labor Unions, informed high officials from the
Cuban Communist Party and government about the results of the
recently held CCP’s 17th
Congress.
This
is the first visit by a top level Chinese official after the recent
Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Renewable
energy as part of Cuba’s Energy Revolution
By
2008, the recently installed eolic park in the province of Holguín
will save the country one ton of oil daily and supply 10 MW to the
National Power System, according to local provincial media.
The
project, set up in the city of Gibara, in the northern region of the
wealthy eastern province, at present has 36 stations for processing
and using eolic power.
According
to Ahora,
"The installation potential in Holguín is almost 2,000 MW
(…) and the extractable potential is 555.2 MW".
The
energy revolution carried out in Cuba includes the development of
power plants run on oil and/or natural gas, and the use of eolic and
solar energy, part of the country’s contribution to the struggle
against contamination and global warming.
Danielle
Mitterrand in Havana
Danielle
Mitterrand, chairwoman of the NGO France-Liberté, arrived in
Havana on Monday, October 12. The widow of former French president
François Mitterrand is dedicated to the defense of human
rights, particularly those related with their right to clean water.
Both Ms. Mitterand and the NGO she chairs are waging a campaign so
that all countries include in their respective constitutions the
access to water as a guaranteed right.
According
to international organizations, there are one billion people in the
world without drinkable water; 40 percent of the world’s population
has no sanitation; and 3.5 million people, most of them children, die
every year due to diarrhea and malaria, in part because the lack of
access to clean water.
Ms.
Mitterrand met with president of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcón
to discuss the situation of water in the world.
Popular
Power in municipalities
The
constitution of the 169 Municipal Assemblies of Popular Power in Cuba
was set for Friday, November 16.
Once
in session, the recently elected members will vote by secret ballot
for the respective presidents and vice presidents in all the
country’s municipal assemblies.
