Photo: Estudios Revolución

Havana, November 9 (RHC)-- The First Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, headed on Wednesday afternoon a check-up of recovery actions in Pinar del Río, the province most affected by the passage of Hurricane Ian on September 27.

At the Palace of the Revolution and with the participation also of the Members of the Political Bureau, President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo Hernandez and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, the leadership of the country was informed by the President of the Provincial Defense Council, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, linked by videoconference, about the restoration of damages to electricity and water services, as well as the recovery of housing and agriculture.

The First Secretary of the Party in Vueltabajo specified that the energy has reached 95, 37 % of the clients, only the most complex sections of 30 communities belonging to the municipalities of San Juan y Martínez, San Luis, Pinar del Río and Consolación del Sur and other 151 clients in the rest of the localities of the province are missing.

Of the 176 sources of water supply, 173 have been reestablished, while 50 pipes are transporting the vital liquid to the inhabitants without the service. The leader added that work continues on the improvement of the water resources infrastructure and the planned investments.

Regarding agriculture, 5,866 hectares of various crops have been planted and as part of the tobacco campaign, seeds have been planted on 66.6 hectares. At the same time, of the more than 5 thousand covered tobacco houses damaged by the winds of the meteor, 467 have been rebuilt.

The reconstruction of houses is by consensus the biggest challenge for the people of Pinar del Río in the recovery stage, since 106,299 properties were affected.

In reference to this issue, Ramos Cordero confirmed that 7,119 families have resolved the damages, a figure that is still low despite the increase in the entry of materials. This was detailed in the exchange by the head of Construction, René Mesa Villafaña.

The member of the Secretariat of the Party's Central Committee, Felix Duarte Ortega, reiterated the delays in the operation of the processing offices in the municipalities of Pinar del Rio and San Juan y Martinez, where support is received from technicians from other 9 localities of the territory who concluded the preparation of forms and the certification of damages.

More attention must be paid to the attention to the vulnerable -emphasized the Head of the Agro-alimentary Department of the Central Committee of the Party- who statistically explained that there are still few, in this situation, those who have bought materials.

"The offices of procedures cannot close even if they have concluded the preparation of forms, since they must follow up on the sale of materials and the use of these in the reconstruction of houses," Duarte Ortega asserted.

In the evaluation that is systematically carried out by the country's highest leadership, the deputy prime ministers Inés María Chapman Waugh, Alejandro Gil Fernández and Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, as well as representatives of various ministries, participated in the evaluation.