Cuba: Crippling power and water shortages force Cuba’s Matanzas residents to adapt.

SHOTLIST: MATANZAS, CUBA (MAY 30, 2026) 1. CARS, MOTORBIKES PASSING FROM ROAD 2. PEOPLE WAITING IN FRONT OF SMALL BUILDING 3. MAN WALKING NEAR BUILDING 4. VEHICLES PASSING FROM ROAD 5. VARIOUS OF BARBER CUTTING HAIR IN A DARK SHOP WITH HELP OF USING HEADLAMP 6. SCREEN DISPLAYING CUBAN FLAG / TYPED '#NO+BLOQUEO' 7. VARIOUS OF WOMAN CUTTING MEATS IN DIM ROOM WITH HELP OF DAYLIGHT COMING FROM WINDOW 8. CHE GUEVERA'S GRAFFITI ON WALL 9. ANCHORED BOATS WAITING NEAR LIKE 10. VARIOUS OF EMPTY ENERGY TERMINAL, OIL STATION 11. MOVING SHOT AROUND ANTONIO GUITERAS POWER PLANT 12. LANDSCAPE OF RIVER 13. MAN TAKING WATER FOR WELL TO BIN 14. PICKUP VEHICLE CARRYING WATER TANK 15. CITY LANDSCAPE FROM SEA 16. VARIOUS OF TANKER SHIPS HALTING IN MIDDLE OF SEA 17. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SWIMMING IN SEA 18. BUS WAITING NEAR FUEL STATION 19. VARIOUS OF NIGHT SHOTS DISPLAYING EMPTY STREETS IN DARKNESS 20. MOTORBIKE PASSING FROM DARK STREET 21. CAR ARRIVING IN DARK STREETMATANZAS, CUBA - MAY 30: Residents and businesses in the Cuban city of Matanzas are scrambling to maintain daily routines amid recurring, prolonged blackouts and severe water shortages that have paralyzed normal activity across the region. The disruptions have hit Matanzas particularly hard, forcing the local population to deploy creative, alternative strategies to survive the rolling outages. Restaurants in the city have shifted to cooking entirely over charcoal fires, while local hairdressers and barbers routinely operate under the light of battery-powered headlamps to serve customers during grid failures. Faced with public transit collapses, some transport operators have outfitted vehicles with roof-mounted solar panels to stay on the road without relying on grid-dependent charging or scarce fuel. The Antonio Guiteras power plant, a critical thermoelectric facility located right in Matanzas, has repeatedly suffered total breakdowns, mechanical failures, and boiler leaks, triggering widespread electricity deficits across the entire island.