Rainy Season in Cuba Means Building Collapses in Havana (Video)

HAVANA TIMES – The rainy season in Cuba begins and with it the partial and total building collapses. Central Havana and Old Havana are the most affected territories.

The deterioration due to lack of maintenance or neglect of the municipal authorities in the face of the economic situation, puts homes in a serious danger. There are buildings that for decades have not been painted, much less repaired.

In May the heavy downpours occur and in June the hurricane season begins; There are families who have looked for a way to fix their properties, but often they live next to a construction in partial collapse, and they fear that what remains of it will fall on their apartments.

When the State demolition company comes to a building where a balcony or floor of the building collapses, they only knock down what they think could fall on its own, the rest is left as a monument to disaster.

That can last for decades and nobody does anything about it, you can walk through Havana and see how these buildings are part of the Cuban and architectural folklore, with the consequences that this entails in health, rodents, mosquitoes, and they also become garbage deposits.

The lack of construction materials in Cuba is known. Whoever can raise money to fix their home hopes the reparation will last, because they don’t know when they can do it again, especially the elderly, who live on a retirement pension, which barely keeps them alive.

It is sad that a city as beautiful as Havana is destroyed before the eyes of its inhabitants, without being able to demand action from the authorities.

The government structures exist: housing offices, multiple use buildings office and others, but do any of them do anything?

Who is responsible for these things happening? Human lives are lost for some who live for decades in places that are ruined and far from being a decent home.