472 WATER AND WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE PRIORITIES FOR CUBA WITH EMPHASIS ON HAVANA, INCLUDING SOME BENEFIT-COST CONSIDERATIONS Armando I. Perez, Roberto Cardona, Luis Locay, and Helena M. Solo-Gabriele 1 In anticipation of an eventual political transition in Cuba, two Cuban-American engineering associations, the Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineers (C-AACE) and the Association of Cuban Engineers (ACE), have continued to sponsor their joint Cuba Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Committee. At the 2008 annual conference of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE) two of the co- authors of this paper presented an overview of envi- ronmental, institutional and economics issues (Solo- Gabriele and Perez, 2008). This paper concentrates on priorities. We anticipate that under a political transition, exter- nal financial aid (i.e., grants) for infrastructure may be available for only a relatively short period of time, after which financing for infrastructure projects will need to be obtained as loans from international lending insti- tutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank. One objective of this paper is to provide guid- ance for identifying and prioritizing water/wastewater infrastructure needs for Cuba, so that resources can be allocated efficiently during the anticipated periods of international aid and lending. Another objective is to illustrate, via a case study, some sensible choices of in- cremental wastewater treatment processes; to provide approximate cost information; and to discuss the esti- mation of economic benefits. As a starting point for prioritizing water and wastewater improvements we briefly describe the water resources within the country and describe the eight priority watersheds on the is- land as identified by Cuban Institute of Hydraulic Re- sources (Instituto de Recursos Hidráulicos)(García Fernández 2006). Specific detailed priorities are identified for one of the eight priority watersheds which is located in the capi- tal city of Havana, namely, the Almendares-Vento wa- tershed. One of these priorities (illustrated in the case study) is the treatment of domestic wastewater from the Town of Cotorro, the waste of which currently flows directly into surface waters which are hydrauli- cally interconnected with the Vento Aquifer, the pri- mary potable water source for the population of Ha- vana. As a first step, we estimate the cumulative cost of each phase of the Cotorro project (that is, diversion of untreated wastewater to another watershed, primary treatment, secondary treatment and tertiary treat- ment). Also, for each phase we present a conceptual methodology for estimating the economic benefits of 1. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of their employers or of their sponsoring engineering societies. Authors’ knowledge of Cuba is based on limited information available, mostly from the Internet and from papers published in Cuba. Authors would like to acknowledge the valuable advice received from Dr. Juan Belt of the U.S. Agency for Inter- national Development and Peter Robinson of Hazen and Sawyer P.C., as well as the work performed by C-AACE Board members Rodrigo Rodriguez and Victor Pujals. We also appreciate the work performed by University of Miami engineering students Cristina Ortega, Resh- ma Ramoutar, Karen Kajder, Jose Cueto, and Omar De Leon, and the review comments of many colleagues.