“If the Covid Doesn’t Kill Us, the Garbage Will”

By Juan Diego Rodríguez (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – In Central Havana the garbage cans have overflowed again. On Jovellar street, at the corner of Hospital, residents complain about the mountain of waste that mixes with the sewage water right in front of Medical Office Number 20.

“If the covid does not kill us, other diseases will,” a patient said this Tuesday morning at the door of the office. “Laziness and irresponsibility is what is going to kill us señora,” answers a man who is changing a car tire, while he observes some of the so-called “divers” who stop to rummage through the garbage cans.

A neighbor of the neighborhood assures 14ymedio that she has not seen or heard the collection truck for days. “When it arrives, it is impossible not to notice it, even if it is not standing at the door. I hear it because it makes a lot of noise and the workers speak loudly. Those dumpsters have been overwhelmed for days and I have not heard them pass by, I called Comunales and they told me that yesterday there was a brigade working, which should have picked it up, the truth is that that did not happen.”

In a tour of the area, this newspaper has been able to verify that the garbage containers are full or overflowing, in some areas you can also see piles of rubble and other solid waste. The residents of the neighborhood complain about the proliferation of rodent and cockroach pests.

“It seems to me that they have no fuel, because until a while ago the collection worked quite regularly, with the new donated trucks. I can no longer handle the mice and cockroaches, even dinosaurs will come to visit us soon with such unhealthiness,” lamented a neighbor from Cayo Hueso.

On March 1, 2020, new measures came into force and what was supposed to be a severe inspection system for collective cleaning, with fines that can reach 3,000 pesos, worked only for a short time. Faced with the failure to comply with the collection deadlines and hours, the neighbors once again cram the cans while the Communal workers shine by their absence.

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