By Iris Hernandez Rodriguez
neysi@enet.cu
Translation: Ernesto Gutierrez Pino

Las Tunas. – There are rivers that extol many cities of the world. Paris, London and Havana are counted in this group.

Since the beginnings of the humanity, people have settled down near lakes, lagoons, rivers and costs, because the water is indispensable for the life.

The ancestros of the inhabitants of this city also chose a near river to establish their properties. Hormiguero River, well-known today as Hormigo, appeased the thirst of the first inhabitants of this district.

Juan Cristobal Napoles Fajardo, El Cucalambe, famed bucolic poet of the 19th century, wote a poem book inspired by the rumors of this fluvial current, but in the poem he uses name Hormigo, instead of Hormiguero, to make it more poetically.

When in October 1868 Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Father of the Cuban Homeland, surprised the Spaniards with his call to the uprising, the riverbanks of the Hormigo became the first camp for those who fought in this land against the Spanish cilonialism.

Some of the myths and legends that enrich the identity of the inhabitants of this city have a close relationship with its rivers. The Guijes of the Hormiguero and The ghost of the Ahogapollos exalted many nights and conversations among the first inhabitants of these lands.

A part from this, the rivers have called the attention of the investigators. The fourth three parts of the Earth planet is composed by water. But only a tiny quantity is fit for human consumption. For that reason, the investigators insist in the necessity of preserving the existent resources.

According to Enciclopedia Encarta 2003 (on-line Encyclopedia), "most of the rivers in the industrialized nations are contaminated.... the developing countries have the challenge of not repeating the same errors and must prevent the contamination of their rivers and virgin ecosystems."

Many time ago the experts denounced that the holding of drinkable water would be reason of wars. At present such a prophecy is erected in a reality. The Middle East and some developing countries are the scenario where the water leaves of being "valuable liquid", to adopt the term of "inaccessible resource for the poor."

Fortunately, the love for nature has been erected in the solution to prevent the deterioration of the planet and it is that the environmental problems don't have borders.