Fifty-five years have passed since 1968, when Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz officially opened the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Dam, located in the Contramaestre River basin.
It took four years to build this dam, which was the will of the revolutionary government to boost the hydraulic system, so severely affected by the rainfall during the Flora cyclone. This was the largest dam until then, and the first one built by the Cuban Revolution.
It was necessary to solve the housing problem of 496 families living near the river where the work was being carried out and relocate them to other sites. The cost of equipment and materials, the effort made by many and the loss of human lives, are things that should never be forgotten.
This construction work cost more than 15 million pesos and involved the participation of engineers from Cuba, France and the former Soviet Union. More than 900 workers were on the construction site, six of whom died in work-related accidents.
A dam, a symbol of a revolution in power
In the middle of the inauguration speech, Fidel said: “Can there be anything fairer, when it comes to giving a name to this work, 100 years after the beginning of the fight for independence, than to call it “Carlos Manuel de Céspedes” Dam? This is how this dam was inaugurated on July 5 and today, 55 years later, it continues to provide its benefits with a capacity of more than 200 million cubic meters.
This dam has among its utilities the irrigation of sugar cane, rice and viands plantations, and it also supplies water to the population of Contramaestre and the city of Santiago de Cuba, where more than 426 thousand inhabitants live. It likewise supplies water to the provinces of Granma and Holguín.
Rodolfo González Gutiérrez, who is head of Hydraulic Resources in this municipality, said that after the heavy rains that occurred at last May and early June in the territory, the reservoir reached 97 percent of its capacity and contributes 4.5 cubic meters of water per second and 1.5 MW to the national electric system.
The Carlos Manuel de Céspedes dam is one of the great works of the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro, for the benefit of a large part of the eastern territory of the island.
