Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of
Cuban scientists on flights to bomb clouds to create rain amid a
severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and
electricity rationing.
Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to
save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were
preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco
River.
"I'm going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I'll zap it so
that it rains," Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday with
family members of five Cubans convicted of spying in the United
States.
Many countries have programs aimed at altering weather patterns,
commonly known as cloud seeding, although the effectiveness of such
techniques is disputed.
Firing silver iodine at clouds is one common method. China uses
rockets loaded with the chemical to spur rainfall in arid
regions.
Chavez did not say what technology the Cubans will use.
Venezuela has suffered water and electricity shortages this month
after a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon led to
critically low water levels at several reservoirs in the
oil-exporting nation.
The government has been criticized for poor planning after it was
forced to impose strict water rationing in the capital Caracas and
power rationing in other parts of the country.
Venezuela produces much of its electricity from hydroelectric
projects, including the giant El Guri dam close to the
Orinoco.
Chavez provides Cuba with subsidized oil and is a close friend of
the communist island's former leader Fidel Castro.
Chavez said Castro was in excellent health and invited the Cuban to
participate in a trade conference he is hosting next month in
Havana.
Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing intestinal surgery in 2006.
