Socialism has an almost magical quality:

it can make anything rare, and blame it on capitalism/ists.
CARACAS -- Compulsory cuts in water supplies began Monday in this city and other areas of Venezuela, leaving residents and businesses with little choice but to do without for periods of up to 48 hours at a stretch. The objective of all this is to slash consumption by 20% because water is in short supply.

The cause of the shortages is a matter of dispute. For President Hugo Chavez, who's now in his tenth year in power, the root problem(here it comes) lies in the shortcomings of capitalism. "With what do they fill the swimming pools of the rich?" he recently demanded to know. "With the water that they deny to the poor barrios. This is the capitalism of the lack of feelings, the lack of humanity."
Please note: this little commie has been in power for ten years, and he's still blaming 'capitalism' for every problem he's caused or made worse. Even though
...That said, water taps in poor districts are known to run indefinitely, or until they dry up, because nobody can turn them off.

Which raises the other villain of this piece. The government's critics claim that the real cause of the trouble is years, if not decades, of inadequate maintenance, or none at all. Be that as it may, Hitcher says the shortages will be in force until the official end of the dry season (which in prior days would soon be getting underway) in May next year.
So the Glorious Socialist Gummint of Venezuela doesn't bother to, or can't, maintain the water systems. But- of course!- it's The Capitalists At Fault, So Don't Blame The Revolution.
But the problem isn't just water but electricity, too. This is an important consideration given that electricity is used to pump water from street level to water tanks on the roofs of apartment and office blocks.
While a program of power cuts apparently isn't officially on the cards -- or at least not yet -- Chavez has decreed into existence a new Electric Energy Ministry to oversee austerity measures. These will include measures to cut consumption including, it's said, a supposedly much less glitzy line in what's permitted in the way of street decorations during the approaching festive season.
Which means Chavez will use this as an excuse to seize more private property and businesses and tighten his hold over people, and he'll be a good little Castro buttmonkey and blame everyone else- the US at the top of the list- for the problem. Venezuela is rich in oil, but they're short of power? Gee, I wonder why... Which brings us to
Again, there's argument about the cause of this strife. Officials point to sharply surging electricity demand, which they estimate is rising at an annual rate of six percent. Others say the real problem is on the supply side of the equation and, again, they argue that the cause of this is a poor investment record. "Years of not enough investment and lack of maintenance to the distribution lines and power generations systems," says Bottome.

The government, which nationalized electricity in 2007, appears to have taken this on board. Officials say $18 billion is to be invested to put things right and boost generation capacity by MW10,480 by 2014.
Uh huh. Except that, being run by a bunch of socialists, the money will disappear, capitalists will be blamed, and things will fall further behind.

But Obama assures us that Chavez is a great leader, and soon monkeys will fly out of his ass and start turning the turbines soon will make it all better. Just like Obama will make health care all better by taking control of it.

Such a comforting thought, isn't it?