Although “do not litter” signs multiply, people continue to throw waste in public spaces: there are few containers, most are broken, and the collection service is irregular or non-existent.
HAVANA.- The authorities, already inefficient, seem determined to add new difficulties to daily life. Added to the multiple problems faced by the population is now the almost impossible task of finding where to throw away the garbage
This week, in front of a sign posted on the corner of Ayestarán and Lombillo, in El Cerro, that warned “not to throw garbage,” an older woman wondered aloud: “And where do I throw the garbage now, if there is no container nearby?” Hours later, the sign had already been torn down by some outraged neighbor.
In that area – as in several others in the municipality – municipal brigades have collected piles of waste with construction excavators, destroying the containment, the flower bed and part of the sidewalk. A resident of City Hall and Lombillo repaired everything with his own means, but the majority does not have the resources to take on jobs that correspond to the State.
Although “do not litter” signs multiply, people continue to throw waste in public spaces: there are few containers, most are broken, and the collection service is irregular or non-existent. In this neighborhood, located a few meters from ministries and the Plaza de la Revolución—and where mid-level officials reside—cleaning is more frequent. It is enough to go a few blocks away to find the same garbage dumps that are repeated throughout Havana.
The capital, deteriorated and dirty, today seems like a huge landfill, an urban “Cayo Cruz.” The government responded to the recent wave of patients and deaths from arboviruses with a media display of sanitation. However, the campaign recalls those days of Military Service in which the “old guard” was imposed: cutting grass, collecting leaves and cleaning green areas… unproductive work whose effect disappeared after a few days. The same thing happens now: the garbage is piling up again.
Decades ago, collection was simple and efficient. A truck traveled through the neighborhood daily; The workers warned by hitting the sides of the vehicle with an iron, they picked up the buckets from the sidewalk and quickly returned them empty. Without large resources, the task was accomplished. Today, not a single one of the “brainly” leaders seems to contemplate basic solutions that have already worked.
Recently, my daughter, who lives in Verona, Italy, told me that they have installed containers there with artificial intelligence and access using personal passwords. In Cuba, if something similar was applied, what would happen to the thousands of “vulnerable” people who today survive by digging through the garbage in search of something salable… or food?
If the country sold recyclable waste to foreign companies, it could reduce makeshift landfills. But nothing advances if the interests of GAESA and they do not obtain benefits from the ruling leadership.
The garbage problem, addressed time and again by the independent press, remains intact. The dirt grows, the landfills multiply and the authorities, instead of solving, repeat the same justifications as always: lack of resources and “the blockade.”
