On 19 March 2026, Havana residents carried buckets and queued for water from tanker trucks in several neighbourhoods. Reuters footage and reporting linked the dry taps affecting thousands of households to fuel shortages and instability in the power grid.
A water system depends on more than pipes. Intake, pumping and delivery all require electricity or fuel; when that chain failed, household supply was concentrated at a truck. The containers in line were both a means of carrying a basic ration and the unit through which families had to compensate for a stalled urban network.