Over 23,200 houses built in Cuba in 2017

Cuba expects to end the year with 23,200 new houses, whether built by the government, of the population using subsidies or loans, Vivian Rodríguez, general director of Housing of the Ministry of Construction, reported to the Parliament.

By the end of November, 14,832 houses had been completed, of which 40 percent were built by the State, according to the update offered by the official to the deputies of the Cuban standing commission on Industry, Construction and Energy.

Rodriguez explained that the number of houses that are planned for this year exceed by over a thousand those built in 2016.

She pointed out that the increase is related to the efforts made during the last quarter in territories affected by Hurricane Irma, among which stand out Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Las Tunas and Holguín, provinces that reoriented their plans of allocation of construction materials and financial resources and labor force, and expanded the use of constructive typologies.

With regard to the dirt floors, another of the topics included in the agenda of the deputies, it was known that at the end of November only 28,000 had been eradicated, out of a total of 117 thousand detected at the end of 2016.

The official demanded the definitive solution of this problem within a maximum period of five years, and pointed out that there are material and financial resources in the localities to eradicate it.

The legislators also learned that 39,000 houses damaged by Hurricane Irma last September had been repaired, a positive improvement though the figure only stands for 22 percent of all affected.

Deputy Carlos Massip, for the municipality of Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey, shared the positive experiences of the town of Esmeralda where they fixed the damage caused by the powerful meteor to the houses in a short time.

He praised, in that sense, the joint work between government authorities and the affected population itself in the reconstruction of their homes.

The parliamentarian Miguel García highlighted Camagüey's progress in this sector, thanks to the responsibility assumed by the agencies and companies in helping low-income families benefiting from subsidies.

Since the approval of this policy, in 2012, 115,030 subsidies have been granted, which has benefited 345,090 people, 54 percent have been used to build new houses or to repair existing ones.