MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuba facing dramatic power shortage calls for ‘energy-saving’

Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes

Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes issued a call to “step up” energy-saving measures on the island in the face of the increase in electricity use in recent months, official Communist Party daily Granma said Thursday.

Valdes, who is also minister for communications and information technology, analyzed the Cuban electricity situation at a working meeting in the central province of Cienfuegos, where “there was consensus in describing it as a contingency situation,” the newspaper said.

Granma added that a call was issued to “step up the savings measures and to do and demand it ... in the interests of not exceeding the (power consumption) plans.”

Each year, the arrival of the intensely hot summer season on the communist island forces Cuban authorities to insist on measures to save electricity, and in 2009 those measures were directed primarily at the state sector.

President Raul Castro’s government last year launched a campaign that contributed to reducing power consumption, adopting drastic measures including electricity cutbacks and severe punishment for energy-wasting state entities and firms.

So far in 2010, authorities have been insisting mainly that the public and the business sector work to save water due to the very serious drought affecting Cuba which in May forced a redistribution of the potable water supply in some zones of the capital.

The drought began in late 2008 and intensified notably in 2009, having a major impact on agricultural production and the water supply in several provinces.