{"id":286163,"date":"2023-08-07T13:24:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T17:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=286163"},"modified":"2023-08-07T13:24:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T17:24:17","slug":"housing-in-cuba-whats-happened-to-what-was-planned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/society-cuba\/housing-in-cuba-whats-happened-to-what-was-planned\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing in Cuba: what\u2019s happened to what was planned?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The volume of cement sent to Pinar del R\u00edo since the beginning of 2023 should have reached, as planned, to rebuild half of the houses affected by Hurricane Ian in that province; however, with these materials, barely 32% of the demand has been solved, Minister of Construction Ren\u00e9 Mesa <\/span>revealed <\/span><\/a>in mid-July.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the first half of this year, Pinar del R\u00edo received 10,410 tons of cement for the recovery of its housing fund, but the works carried out justify the employment of only 6,700 tons. The fate of the remaining 3,700 tons remains to be clarified. One part is probably \u201cimmobilized\u201d in warehouses or markets for materials, and another in the hands of victims who have not used it for various reasons. But there is a risk that a significant percentage has ended up on the black market.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero <\/span>warned <\/span><\/a>about this last possibility in September 2022. If what was delivered is diverted, stolen or misappropriated, \u201cthe affectation persists in the family, and in the government, and the responsibility for the solution remains ours,\u201d he stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

His comment was addressed to local officials, from various ministries and the Civil Defense, gathered for an update on the recovery in the five provinces most affected by the meteorological events of recent months.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne sees progress in Las Tunas, Holgu\u00edn is on the way, but the rest is not right, and we have to say it that way,\u201d Marrero said. Among all the recovery programs (agriculture, roads, electricity, etc.), housing is the one with the greatest delays.<\/span><\/p>\n

A week later, Housing General Director Vivian Rodr\u00edguez ratified before the National Assembly of People\u2019s Power that it is precisely the provinces with the worst housing situation that undertake fewer renovations and new works. Pinar del R\u00edo, which occupies the last positions in all statistical sections (rebuilt houses, partial and total reconstructions, roof reconstructions, etc.), is the extreme case, she specified.<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue led to a sort of disagreement between Rodr\u00edguez and members of the Industry, Construction and Energy commission. While the first emphasized that 97% of the plan had been executed by the end of May, implying that the year\u2019s commitment could be fulfilled, in its report, the parliamentary commission made a contrary reading of the future scenario, qualifying it as of \u201csignificant risk of non-compliance in the year,\u201d according to a Prensa Latina <\/span>dispatch<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Kaloian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Little production, more exports<\/b><\/p>\n

Anyone even minimally informed could anticipate that the housing news would not be good in the traditional parliamentary rendering of accounts in July. It was enough to inquire about the state of the Cuban construction materials industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the beginning of June, during a Mesa Redonda TV program <\/span>on the subject<\/span><\/a>, the vice president of the Construction Materials Business Group (GEICON), Reynold Ram\u00edrez, insisted at least four times that the productions of the industry under his responsibility would continue \u201cto be insufficient for the growing demand of the population.\u201d Although the sector\u2019s plans for this calendar are more ambitious than those for 2022, their true magnitude is not appreciated until they are compared with the plan of five years ago; and the conclusion is not good.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), in 2018 Cuba produced more than 94 million concrete blocks, 9.7 million mud bricks, 4.1 million cubic meters of crushed stone and 1 .7 million of calcareous sand (for resistance). In 2023, this production should be 4.9 million blocks, 1.3 million bricks, 2.9 million cubic meters of stone and 907,000 meters of \u201ctotal sand\u201d (apparently, the section also summarizes the so-called \u201cwashed sands\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Kaloian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In their statistical list, the executives did not include data on the two materials usually most in demand for construction activity: steel and cement. Not even during the intervention of the general director of the Cement Group, Her\u00e1cleo Porto Vald\u00e9s, during the rendering of accounts in the National Assembly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Porto tiptoed over the current statistics of the sector, to focus on the prospects of the cement industry, whose \u201cproduction for the year 2025 should be much higher.\u201d The new cement production plants that are installed in Nuevitas and Santiago de Cuba, and the investments planned for the other four Cuban factories should sustain the projected recovery, he predicted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virtually any result will be better than that of 2022, when barely 680,000 tons of gray cement came out of Cuban factories (43% of what was produced in 2018). It was not the most significant drop: in the same period, the production of corrugated steel bars contracted to 8,500 tons (13% of the already meager closing of 2018) and that of billets (raw material for the bars) to 13,600 tons (7.8% of what was produced five years ago).<\/span><\/p>\n

As with cement, investments in the metallurgical industry are intended to reverse the crisis, but the construction of new plants solves only half the problem. Along with industries, to produce cement it is necessary to have an abundant supply of fuel and energy, which Cuba finds challenging to guarantee.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the shortage of materials, housing construction must deal with increasing \u201ccompetition\u201d from exports. According to data reported in the Mesa Redonda program, in 2023, 16.4 million dollars\u2019 worth of exports of construction materials are expected; fifteen times more than in 2022 and one hundred times more than in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cement problem and the housing program in Cuba<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n