Havana/The Guillermo Tomás Bouffartigue Conservatory, an institution in Guanabacoa, Havana, which hosts more than 300 music students, has been surrounded by a garbage dump for several months. The situation was reported on social networks by Roldán Fernández, orchestra director and teacher at the center, who expressed his concern about the impact that this unhealthy focus has on the health of students, families and workers.
“Hundreds of students, family members and teachers have fallen ill with dengue and chikungunya; mosquitoes are out in force,” he said in a video broadcast on his networks. “The doors and windows of the school have to be kept closed because of the stench, which is very intense. There are days when it is impossible to concentrate,” he added.
As Fernández explained, members of the community have filed complaints with various municipal bodies, without obtaining any response.
This Wednesday, 14ymedio He confirmed that the huge garbage dump is still there, between Juan Bosco and Barreto streets, where stagnant water also accumulates. Ironically, the waste is piled in front of a sign warning of a 1,500 peso fine for littering. Behind the conservatory, there is also a primary school of similar size, so uniformed children constantly pass by the place.
/ 14ymedio
The capital faces a deficit of about 20,000 containers of garbage, aggravated by the fuel crisis, which forces Comunales workers to spend a large part of their day in lines to get supplies. Of the five planned daily routes, only 3.1 are achieved, on average. Added to this is the precarious salary of the sector – with salaries that are around 2,000 pesos, a figure equivalent to the current price of a knob of oil in Ciego de Ávila–, which has led the Government to even resort to the workforce of people deprived of liberty.
Since mid-2025, Cuba has suffered a serious epidemic of several viruses, especially dengue and chikungunya, which has officially caused the death of just over fifty people, mostly minors, although an independent study indicated that it could rise to almost 9,000. The precariousness of the country’s health services, added to the general deterioration of hygienic conditions and open-air garbage dumps, have contributed to an unusual increase in mortality from diseases that, in normal contexts, present a considerably lower level of lethality.
