CACOCUM, Holguín.- As soon as the water supply to the houses in the rural community of 10 de Octubre is mentioned, the gratitude of the inhabitants to the workers of the Sociedad Mercantil Estatal Tauba Holmotor S.U.R.L. (State Trading Company Tauba Holmotor) flows like the vital liquid.
Several months ago, the 61 residents in the 27 houses of the settlement left behind the uncertainty that caused them to depend on a pumping equipment that no longer gave any more, due to the long period of use; a change that took place when the directors of the industrial plant went there to inform them that they would install, free of charge, a new electric pump, of a model designed and manufactured in the entity.
The equipment extracts water from a depth of about eight meters and delivers it directly to all the houses, because the elevated tank is out of use, explains Luis Fernández Ramírez, who has been in charge of pumping since the time when the site was named after the now disintegrated 10 de Octubre agricultural production cooperative.
The fact that the inhabitants of the community received the electric pump without payment does not mean that it did not cost anything. If the equipment arrived there, it was because the collective of Tauba Holmotor workers held an assembly in which it was agreed, with the consent of all, to allocate 100,000 pesos from the profits made in 2024, to favor the solution of the settlement's water supply.
According to Iván Pego Martínez, head of production at the industrial plant, the agreement was to take 75,000 pesos for the purchase of the equipment, since this amount corresponds to the price at which it is marketed, which takes into account the investment in manufacturing and the profit margin. The rest of the money was used to purchase the electrical control system.
They have not intended to stand out with their solidarity behavior, the manager explains, because in fact they recognize the value of the call of the provincial and municipal authorities to the productive entities, from the economic possibilities of each one, to get more involved in the eradication of part of the material problems of the population.
Putting the electric pump into service in the rural town has been contemplated as part of the follow-up of the products developed by the industrial plant. In 2024 they produced 70 units of this type, and so far this year they have accumulated 30, in a struggle marked by labor vicissitudes, among them the rearrangement of work shifts, due to the frequent lack of electricity.
With optimism, he confirms that work continues to make concrete the purpose of manufacturing 500 units, to be installed in small communities and in multi-family buildings, under an agreement whereby the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos (INRH, National Institute of Hydraulic Resources) will supply the necessary material resources.
Xiomara Rodríguez Rosales, delegate of the 36th constituency of the 10 Juan Durán people's council, in which the community is located, believes that the donation has caused a kind of positive dragging, once the province's directors and authorities of the municipal government assumed a project that contemplates the construction of a hut to protect the electric pump and replace the old main pipe and the branches (connections) to each house, followed by the acquisition of a large volume tank to place it in the place where the one that today shows advanced deterioration is located.
According to information provided by Juan Mario Hechavarría Hernández, INRH delegate in Holguín, some four million pesos have been earmarked for the extensive transformation, part of them from the investment budget managed by that entity, and another part from the so-called territorial contribution to local development.
Granma verified the good rhythm of the construction actions, which is reflected in the advanced state of the hut and in the realization of the ditches and the process of joining 75 millimeters pipes, which are the ones that start from the well and are the backbone of the new hydraulic network.
Xiomara, the delegate of the People's Power, with her colloquial tone and habit of following the pulse of what is happening around her, insists that the community is as if it were renewed, because although the elderly predominate, they, to the extent of their possibilities, are also actively involved in the work. “Look, a neighbor sent these two packets of soda for the builders to add to the snack. Oh, two other people have already sent them coffee, to cheer them up,” she says.
Just as she is detailing plans to organize a day of volunteer work to speed up the construction work, a truck appears. When the vehicle stops, he sees that the missing rolls of pipe have arrived. In a friendly and demanding tone, he pointed out to Hermes Velázquez Reynaldo - head of the executing brigade and representative of the medium-sized private company Nube Construction - the measures for the protection of the shipment, among them, to take it immediately to the yard of the nearby house, converted into a “safe storage” of other acquired resources.
