Set on fire by both city workers and residents
Cuba’s health authorities warn of the “serious effects” on people’s health from waste incineration.
By Darío Hernández (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES — “The garbage dump on the corner of my house is set on fire almost every day. There are moments when the neighborhood looks foggy—and it’s not fog, it’s smoke.”
The scene Tony describes is not exclusive to Guanabacoa, where he lives, but rather a widespread situation across Havana. “My house is on elevated ground and I can see the southwest area of the city and every morning the level of smoke covering that whole area is heavy and very worrying.”
Garbage burning is so indiscriminate that it often takes place next to hospitals, schools, or parks. Last Friday, a social media user denounced a “waste-burning site” near Havana’s Metropolitan Park, “barely 50 meters from the Clínico Quirúrgico Hospital on 26th,” she pointed out, “and in the middle of a super densely populated neighborhood of elderly people and children”—namely the central Puentes Grandes area, in Plaza de la Revolucion municipality.
Given the situation, authorities have begun speaking out to warn about the consequences of carrying out this prohibited practice. This Sunday, the Cuban Neurosciences Center did so in a Facebook message warning about the toxicity of a practice that has proliferated amid the crisis.
“In light of garbage burning in our city, we alert the population: this practice is gravely toxic to your health and your brain,” the text stresses. The center explains that when garbage burns it releases heavy metals and dioxins capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain.
These components “act as neurological poisons: they affect memory, children’s cognitive development, and can trigger neurodegenerative diseases,” in addition to severely damaging “lungs and heart,” and contaminating soil and water. “Burning a garbage dump does not clean it—it turns it into a poison factory,” the institution warns, saying it understands the desperation caused by the garbage collection crisis but objects: “The solution cannot be that we all become sick. Caring for the environment is caring for our minds. A healthy people is a people that thinks.”
A similar warning was issued this Monday by the Havana city government itself, “in light of the troubling situation generated by garbage burning in different parts of the city.” In that regard, it explains that garbage burning refers to “incinerating solid waste in unauthorized places or under inadequate conditions.”
The procedure, they continue, not only produces air pollution but can have “serious effects on human health,” such as respiratory problems, cancer, and neurological disorders. “Inhaling smoke from burned garbage can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, fine particles in the air can aggravate preexisting conditions such as asthma,” they detail.
The warnings have been welcomed with applause among users, who appreciate the attempt to raise awareness, but they have also sparked a heated debate about who the real target of the alert is.
“The warning is not for the population—it’s for the relevant authorities, who seem not to care about the grave and dangerous situation that is repeated across the whole country,” said one Havana resident, who did not hesitate to point to blame. “Citizens are responsible for keeping things clean, but the State, which owns everything, is responsible for collecting it. And don’t say it’s because of the fuel shortage caused by the little old man across the street. This has been happening for years,” she added.
According to 14ymedio’s reporting, it is not only citizens who set fire to the waste but also officials from Communal Services. “There is a very high level of irresponsibility, ignorance, and neglect in the decision to set garbage on fire,” lamented Caridad, a resident of La Víbora. She explains:
“On the one hand, residents are fed up with having garbage in the neighborhood and they set it on fire, but they are not understanding the consequences. However, on the other hand, the communal institution is also burning it, and that is much more serious because there is a disconnect between what Public Health dictates and what Communal Services is doing.”
This weekend in Regla, two Communal Services workers could be seen next to a smoldering dump not far from the Frank País elementary school. Both had a small machine for moving the garbage.
Rumors that the widespread burning across different parts of Havana comes from an order issued by various Communal Services directorates spread this weekend. An employee from that agency in Cerro municipality denied in a phone conversation with this newspaper that it was an order from above, despite the multiplying burned waste sites.
“No, it wasn’t us—that’s social indiscipline, comrade, the worker replied, recommending calling firefighters if a blaze appears dangerous.
In Guanabacoa, Communal Services has opted to address the situation by offering jobs to people with animal-drawn carts. “Any Guanabacoa resident who has an animal-drawn cart and is interested in the call should report to the company,” they announced on social media. The notice states that pay is “performance-based” and that the objective is to “guarantee the collection of solid household waste.”
The danger of setting garbage on fire is nothing new. As one social media user recalled, the large dump on 100th Street—where controlled waste burning is carried out—has posed a risk for decades.
“More than 20 years ago—maybe 24 or 25—it was determined that it needed to be closed and alternatives sought. The truth is that smoke from that official dump frequently gravely contaminates the surrounding air, affecting extensive areas of Marianao, La Lisa, Boyeros, and so on,” a Havana resident recalled.
Over the years, and with an increasingly severe lack of fuel, vehicles capable of collecting waste, and human resources willing to do such hard and thankless work, the situation has worsened—resulting in a capital full of improvised garbage dumps on every corner.
The final blow has come with the oil blockade derived from the executive order of US President Donald Trump, which since late January threatens tariffs on countries that deliver fuel to Cuba.
Last week, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and National Assembly President Esteban Lazo evaluated the situation in a meeting where it was determined that there would be “122 transfer or temporary waste storage points in the certification process to increase storage capacity.”
Marrero recalled there that “no alternative will be viable without strict citizen discipline, order, and control.” Meanwhile, Havana Vice Governor Reynol García Moreira spoke of using animal-drawn carts as a strategy for the capital, while in some provinces electric vehicles are being put into service.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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