40% of garbage collection equipment in Havana operational

HAVANA, Aug 23   Less than 40% of the garbage collection equipment in Havana is currently operational, the official Cuban newspaper “Granma” reported this Wednesday on an issue that has been the subject of criticism in recent months.

The governor of Havana, Yanet Hernández Pérez, offered this and other data in a meeting with representatives of the national government, in which she explained that only 39% of the 440 Community Services teams “keep working” and that their “availability technique” is reduced to 40% due to a lack of “tires, batteries, rims,…” for garbage collection vehicles.
She also indicated that 11 of the 29 collectors of the Provincial Hygiene Company are currently paralyzed.

Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, in charge of this meeting, urged “not to leave Havana alone”, recalled its “complexity and magnitude” as the capital and asked “all municipalities” to “look for alternative solutions”, because, In his opinion, more organizations, companies and economic actors are needed to support these services.

According to “Granma”, Marrero insisted on “extreme organizational measures” for the collection of solid waste, because “in a city like Havana there has to be planning.”

Havana, with close to two million inhabitants, generates some 23,814 cubic meters of waste daily, according to official data, of which more than two-thirds corresponds to the activity of “services and household waste.”

The accumulation of garbage in the streets and the irregularity of the collection services have been denounced on multiple occasions in recent months, mainly on social networks and unofficial media.

The frequency of collection has been reduced in recent months in the capital and sometimes, given the accumulated volumes, it is done with excavators and dump trucks.

Cuba has suffered a serious crisis for more than two years due to the pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions and mistakes in the national economic policy.

The Cuban government points to the US embargo (blockade) as the main cause of the lack of supplies. Independent experts also point to bureaucratic problems, management failures, neglect and lack of human capital due to the strong emigration that the country is experiencing. EFE