Garbage in the Streets Defaces Cuba’s Urban Landscape
HAVANA TIMES – For months now, the accumulated garbage on the streets of several Cuban cities has become part of the urban landscape, while the sanitation services remain unable to resolve the problem, due to a lack of machinery, inputs, fuel, and even human resources.
“The situation is dismal. There’s garbage everywhere that goes uncollected for weeks. In some zones like mine, there aren’t even any large tanks for holding it,” Claudia Gomez, a resident of the Cuban capital told IPS. She lives in the municipality of Cerro, one of 15 that make up Havana.
According to data from the Provincial Enterprise for Communal Services in Havana, in mid-2024 the quantity of discarded waste in the capital surpassed 30,000 cubic meters daily. Havana, with its two million inhabitants, is the most populous city in this Caribbean nation of 9.7 million.
In Cuba, the services of urban sanitation, or garbage collection, are known as communal services, together with some others the municipality manages, such as landscaping and funeral services.
Less garbage is being picked up, and less frequently. At the close of 2023, according to the most recent data from the National Office of Statistics and Information, 5.9 million cubic meters of solid waste were collected, representing just 85.3% of the 2022 figure. Thirteen of the 15 provinces on the island showed the same tendency, with the exception being Villa Clara in the center of the island, and Santiago de Cuba in the east.
On a national level, some 24.9 cubic meters of solid waste were collected in 2023, representing 92% of the 2022 total.
Shortage of parts, inputs, and civic culture
“The delay in garbage trucks is alarming, especially when there are only a pair of storage tanks. The waste accumulates to the point that, later, there’s a lack of excavators, heavy machinery, trucks, and people to shovel it. Then, all this goes into solving a problem that will repeat itself in a week,” stated Sandra Corrales from Havana’s Maianao district.
In 2013, a study published in the “Cuban Public Health Journal” was already warning that the coverage of containers for Havana didn’t satisfy the needs of the population or the administrative institutions. In addition to the insufficient number of the large receptacles placed in the streets for garbage, the government attributes this crisis of urban sanitation to the deficit of transport vehicles for garbage collection – that, in turn, due to the lack of fuel and spare parts.
In 2024, only 57% of the trucks needed for the job were in use in the capital, In other provincial cities, the situation is similar, but since they’re less populated, the crisis is a bit more manageable. In some rural communities the garbage is even collected in horse-drawn wagons.
The lack of personnel is also among the reasons for the crisis in garbage collection and waste management services, although there’s no specific figure for the number of people working in this field. It is known that in 2019 there were 350,000 employees working in communal services as a whole, but by the beginning of this year, that number had dropped to around 277,000. The exodus may be due to factors such as low salaries, noted Miguel Gutiérrez Lara, head of Inspection Supervision for Havana’s Provincial Government.
At the end of 2023, the average monthly salary in the waste removal sector was around 3,813 Cuban pesos, equal to US $31 dollars according to the official exchange rate of 120 pesos to US $1, but only about US $10 dollars according to the informal market most used by Cubans. It also represents 50% less than the average general salary.
The authorities also blame citizens for contributing to the urban garbage crisis. In 2023, the Havana government issued Resolution 190, which establishes fines for people who damage garbage containers or throw rubble, wood, metal, or other inappropriate objects into the containers.
In Cuba, all the trash goes into one sole garbage tank, without any separate receptacles to store different categories of waste. However, throwing construction materials and other large items into the tanks is forbidden.
“The filth generates more filth. When the streets are clean, people care for them and respect them. But if no alternative is offered to maintain that cleanliness, you grow accustomed to the trash and see it as natural. So, you begin to think – what difference will one more bag of garbage make?” Gomez stated.
Accumulated consequences
Most epidemiologists agree on the relationship between the proliferation of debris and the increase in diseases during the Cuban summer, including vomiting and diarrhea caused by flies; leptospirosis associated with mice; and dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and Oropouche viruses, caused by different species of insect vectors.
The Oropouche virus is classified by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) as reemerging in the Americas, transmitted mainly by the bite of the Culicoides paraensis midge. Pregnant women are especially threatened by this disease, because the virus can be passed to the fetus. All patients present with symptoms easily confused with dengue: high fever, muscle and headaches, nausea and vomiting.
According to the Pan American Health Organization report, there have also been cases of Oropouche in other areas of Latin America, with the most serious ones causing autonomic neuropathy and clinical manifestations related to the nervous system.
Further, the lack of treatment and recycling following solid waste collection causes the build-up of gigantic garbage dumps, with adverse impacts on the environment and on those who live close by, in the case of garbage dumps located in the urban areas.
This also represents a waste of resources and money. According to the National Office of Statistics and Information, only some 10% of the 4.1 million tons of garbage collected in Cuba in 2023 was recycled. That, however, isn’t such a negligible figure, considering that the general indexes for recycling in Latin America and the Caribbean average only 4.5% of the collected waste, as opposed to a world average of 13.5%, according to the World Bank.
Recycling would offer Cuba an opportunity to save foreign currency, improve its earnings and reduce the burden of contamination. More proactive strategies are badly needed to strengthen the efficient management of the country’s waste.
First published in Spanish by IPS and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
It seems like Cuba would be perfect for implementing the time-tested technology of burning garbage to heat water to generate electricity. While this method is far from the most energy efficient, for Cuba it would be better than nothing. It solves the garbage problem and generates electricity in doing so. But obviously the first obstacle is the greatest. Picking up the garbage off the street. Being from hypersensitive San Francisco, I acknowledge that my perspective may be skewed but has anyone else noticed how much Cubans engage in public littering? I walk a lot when I am in Havana. I am always amazed at how easily Habaneros can drink a soda from a can and then just toss the can in the street. I notice how Cubans eat the world’s worst pizzas while walking and then toss the paper wrapping it comes in on the ground. I have noticed that in the rest of the country, the residents are a little more conscientious but in Havana? It’s a disaster!