16 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE RESERVOIR AT CIENFUEGOS 



THE WORK OF SUPPLYING THE CITY WITH PURE WATER COMPLETED — 

 AN UNFAILING SOURCE SECURED 



The great work of providing the city of 

 Cienfuegos with an adequate supply of pure 

 water is rapidly nearing completion. For 

 many years the city government had been 

 discussing the question of increasing its 

 water suppl}-. There is a distributing sys- 

 tem in operation, but it is owned by pri- 

 vate parties, and the supply is hardly suf- 

 ficient for more than a third of the popula- 

 tion. During the government of interven- 

 tion plans were formulated for the utiliza- 

 tion of the water of the Hanabanilla River 

 for a supply, and the now completed work 

 draws its supply from that river. 



The city proper has been thoroughly 

 piped, the great 20-inch tubes have been 

 laid from the Papayal Falls of the Hana- 

 banilla River, 46 kilometers away, to the 

 interior of the square concrete tank, which, 

 from the illustration above, looks like some 

 old earth works. It is situated some 

 distance from the city of Cienfuegos, near 

 the town of JNIanicaragua ; is about 20 feet 



deep and the roof is supported by numer- 

 ous pillars. The illustration shows how 

 these are placed. There are numerous 

 openings in the roof for light and air, and 

 iron ladders enable workmen to go down 

 into the tank. The reservoir has a ca- 

 pacity of 10,000,000 gallons, which, with 

 the present population of 30,000, will be 

 sufficient up to 1940. The work will be 

 complete and the water service in opera- 

 tion, it is expected, within six months. 

 The water runs by gravity from the falls 

 to the tank, and also by gravity, the situa- 

 tion of ■ the reservoir being sufficiently 

 elevated for the purpose, through the 

 24-inch pipe to the city's homes. Crossing 

 the Arimao River, the pipe is laid in a 

 trench cut in the rock bed of the stream 

 and is covered with concrete at least .50 

 meters above the top of the pipe. The 

 present supply of the city is inadequate 

 and bad. The new supply is plentiful and 

 of the greatest purity. 



Jiitcrior of (lie reservoir, sliowiiig the pillars which support the roof. 



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