This was reported by César Enrique Hernández Carrazana, Coordinator of Programs and Objectives of the Government of Havana's Constructions, while speaking on the radio and television program Mesa Redonda, in which he explained that the total number of actions to be carried out at the beginning was 8,112, a number that is being updated as work is being done.

He specified that they have been accompanied by the main leaders of the Party and the Government and an example of this is that Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, has visited the works being carried out in eight municipalities.

For their part, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, First Secretary of the PCC in the city, and Reynaldo García Zapata, Provincial Governor, have visited 37 neighborhoods out of the 65 that are part of the transformation process.

 Hernández Carrazana emphasized that the work has been directed towards two fundamental premises: the proposals of the population and popular participation; and that the main work has been directed towards problems related to Hydraulic Resources, Roads, the Electric Company, Transportation, Communal, Public Health and Housing.

The latter, he said, has 1,526 actions to be solved from the initial survey, of which 1,040 have been solved, mainly related to changes in roofs, interventions in multi-family buildings, in the citadels and in transit communities.

 With respect to the attention given to the proposals, the response has been given with changes of tanks, water motors, demolition and reinforcement solutions, among others.

 The Coordinator of Programs of the Government of Havana mentioned that the Electric Company, for example, has solved 1,465 actions (low voltage areas, public lighting); Hydraulic Resources, 1,360 (line changes, leakages, unblocking of lines, cleaning of pits); Etecsa has installed 347 new services; and agriculture works in more than 240 agricultural and livestock markets.

 In addition, Public Health has worked in 109 doctor's offices; Education, in 85 centers; and Commerce, in 73 warehouses and butcher's shops.

 With regard to patching and paving, he added, work has been carried out in 15 neighborhoods in the municipalities of Arroyo Naranjo, 10 de Octubre, Habana Vieja, Guanabacoa, Regla, La Lisa, San Miguel del Padrón, Playa and Plaza de la Revolución, and 60,461 tons of asphalt have been laid since they began to address the needs of the neighborhoods.

In the placement of pothole patching and paving, he said, they have brought to good condition 71 kilometers of road in the city and have poured concrete in an equivalent of 40 kilometers in sidewalks and curbs, fundamentally.

A total of 25 stops have been resurfaced and 25 are in execution, he said.

Hernández Carrazana explained that this is a process that did not start now, since, the last stage of recovery of the deterioration of the city began in 2017 with the Decisive Effort program.

He recalled that the tornado that hit several municipalities in the province gave them another dynamic and all this made it possible to reach the city's 500th anniversary in a different way.

 With the arrival of the COVID-19, efforts had to be dedicated to enable isolation centers, create conditions in hospitals, all this, added to the slowdown experienced by the economy due to the pandemic, he said.

 According to the official, as soon as the conditions allowed it, the actions were resumed and in April they began to work in the municipality of Old Havana, a process in which all those who could, including non-agricultural cooperatives and self-employed workers, have been involved.

 Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, member of the Provincial Bureau of the PCC in Havana, explained that at first the transformation included 62 neighborhoods in the capital, but then it was decided to increase it to 65.

He pointed out that the aim is not only material but also spiritual transformation, to achieve a more direct dialogue with the people, to listen and respond to their needs.

Other premises are to strengthen the role of the delegate and to promote social work.

In this last sense, he mentioned the work carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and by the social workers, who have reached 79 thousand vulnerable groups.

 He specified that as part of the process, more than 10 thousand 154 nuclei that did not have a supply book have benefited, two thousand 930 houses have been legalized, more than three thousand vulnerable families received economic benefits, a considerable number of mothers of three children or more have been attended, new jobs have been offered, as well as short courses and opportunities for reinsertion to study.

By Jenifer Zubizarreta