Via Financial Times:

Like the other residents of the José Martí housing estate in Santiago, Cuba’s second city, Rafael Gonzalez has grown used to the taps running dry.

“Sometimes water arrives only two or three times a month,” says the 46-year-old restaurant worker, who often has to rely on what he collects in the two rusting oil drums parked on the balcony of his second-floor flat.

Now, however, change is in the offing. Fixing Santiago’s defective pipelines and aqueduct is one of a number of projects being given priority as Cuba’s Communist government ploughs billions of dollars into roads, electricity and water infrastructure.

José Martí and other Santiago barrios should benefit, for example, from a multi-million dollar restoration plan and Mr Gonzalez and his neighbours are looking forward to the improvement. “They say next year we will have water,” says Rolando, a 52-year-old retired carpenter. “They are ‘revolutionis ing’ things.”

“Revolutionising”, however, turns out to be a slow process. Cuba’s Communists are anxious to avoid the tumultuous transition experienced by the Soviet Union and – like their Chinese allies – are determined to hold on to political power. Nor, with their traditions of austere egalitarianism, do they have much appetite for the kind of market-based liberalisation that has taken place in China and Vietnam.

Even so, President Raúl Castro, who last month completed his second year at the helm of Cuba’s economy, is determined to press on with changes designed to increase economic efficiency and improve living standards. [Read more →]

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