Both municipal services and residents burn garbage, and Havana is covered in toxic smoke

Havana/“The garbage can that is on the corner of my house is lit almost every day. There are times when the neighborhood looks foggy, and it’s not fog, it’s smoke.” The landscape that Tony describes is not exclusive to Guanabacoa, where he lives, but is a general situation in Havana. “My house is on a hill and I can see the west-south area of ​​Havana up to what is the First Ring of the city, and every morning in the morning the level of smoke that covers that entire area is large and very worrying.”

The garbage burning is indiscriminate to the point that it often occurs next to hospitals, schools or parks. Last Friday, a user on social networks He denounced a “waste burn pit” near the Metropolitan Park of Havana, “just 50 meters from the 26 Surgical Clinical Hospital,” he noted, “and in the middle of a neighborhood overpopulated with the elderly and children,” that is, the central area of ​​Puentes Grandes, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality.

Thus, the authorities have begun to demonstrate to warn of the consequences of carrying out this prohibited action. This Sunday the Cuban Neuroscience Center did it, in a message on Facebook that warned of the toxicity of this practice that has proliferated with the crisis.

These components “act like neurological poisons: they affect memory, the cognitive development of children and can trigger neurodegenerative diseases”

“Given the burning of garbage in our city, we alert the population: this practice is seriously toxic for your health and your brain,” the text underlines. The center explains that, when burned, garbage releases heavy metals and dioxins, capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain.

These components “act like neurological poisons: they affect the memory and cognitive development of children and can trigger neurodegenerative diseases,” in addition to “seriously damaging the lungs and heart,” and contaminating soil and water. “Burning a garbage dump does not clean it, it turns it into a poison factory,” warns the institution, which claims to understand the desperation that exists as a result of the collection crisis, but at the same time objects: “The solution cannot be to make us all sick. Taking care of the environment is taking care of our minds. A healthy people is a people that thinks.”

An alert similar to that of Neurosciences was published this Monday by the same Havana government“given the annoying situation generated by the burning of garbage in different parts of the city.” In this regard, it explains that garbage burning refers to “incinerating solid waste in unauthorized places or in 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. “Inhalation of smoke from burning garbage can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, fine particles in the air can aggravate pre-existing conditions, such as asthma,” they detail.

The warnings have been received with applause among users, who appreciate the attempt to raise awareness in this way, but it has also given rise to a heated discussion about who the real objective of the warning is. “The alert is not to the population, it is to the corresponding organizations, which seem not to care about the serious and dangerous situation that is repeated throughout the country,” says a Havana woman who does not hesitate to point to a culprit. “Citizens are responsible for taking care of the cleanliness, but the State, which is the owner of everything, is responsible for collecting it. And don’t say that it is because of the lack of fuel because of the old man in front. This has been happening for years,” he adds.

As verified 14ymedioit is not only citizens who set waste on fire, but also Community Services officials. “There is a very great level of irresponsibility, ignorance and laziness in that decision to throw light on the garbage,” laments Caridad, a neighbor of La Víbora. And he explains: “On the one hand, the neighbors are stubborn of having garbage in the neighborhood and they make a big deal, but they are not understanding the consequence of that. But on the other hand, the community institution is also burning, and that is much more serious because there is a disconnection between what Public Health dictates and what the communities are doing.”

This weekend, in Regla, two Comunales workers could be seen next to a smoking garbage dump, not far from the Frank País elementary school. They both had a small machine to move garbage.

Rumors that the widespread burning in different parts of Havana comes from an order given by the different directorates of the Communal Services have been unleashed this weekend. An employee of this agency in the municipality of Cerro denied in a telephone conversation to this newspaper that it was a measure ordered from above despite the fact that the sources of burned waste are multiplying. “No, it wasn’t us, that’s social indiscipline, colleague,” responded the worker, who recommended calling the firefighters if danger is observed in the fire.

In Guanabacoa, Comunales has chosen to resolve the situation offering work to those who have animal-drawn vehicles. “Every person from Guanabaco who owns an animal-drawn wheelbarrow and is interested in the call must appear at the company,” they requested through social networks. The advertisement states that the payment is “for performance” and that the objective is to “guarantee the collection of solid waste from the domestic sector.”

The danger of setting garbage on fire is nothing new. As a social media user recalls, the macro landfill on 100th Street, where controlled burning of waste is carried out, has been a risk for decades. “More than 20 years ago, perhaps 24 or 25, it was assessed that it was necessary to close it and look for other alternatives. The truth is that frequently the smoke coming from that official landfill seriously contaminates the air in its surroundings, affecting large areas of Marianao, Lisa, Boyeros, etc.,” recalls a Havana resident.

Over the years and an increasingly pronounced lack of fuel, vehicles capable of collecting waste, and human resources to carry out a job that is as hard as it is thankless, the situation has worsened, resulting in a capital full of improvised garbage dumps on every corner. The final touch has come with the oil blockade derived from the executive order of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, which since the end of January has threatened with tariffs on countries that deliver fuel to Cuba.

Last week, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and the President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo, evaluated the situation in a meeting in which it was determined that there would be “122 temporary waste transfer or collection points in the certification process to increase storage capacity.”

Marrero recalled there that “an alternative will be viable without strict citizen discipline, order and control.” For his part, Reynol García Moreira Reynol García Moreira, vice-governor of Havana, spoke about the use of animal-drawn vehicles as a strategy for the capital, while in some provinces electric means are being enabled.