More than 60 families live on a garbage dump in Guantánamo

More of 60 families they live on what was theEcological Center for Urban Waste Processing (CEPRU), located in the community of Isleta, south of the city of Guaso, in Guantánamo.

The CEPRU, which remained active between 2000 and 2012, closed andurban solid waste was scattered in thin layers and covered with earth - what is known as a landfill technique - the families' homes were settled on that place, according to a note in the local newspaper.We will win.

In the garbage dump were “hazardous solid waste (...) for human health and the environment”, due to the “high contamination by heavy metals”.

However, in that area, urbanization was allowed without the permits of the eight “mandatory consultation” entities, due to “pressure from the municipal government on the Physical Planning Institute” to build the homes.

Given the concern of several entities, mainly the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), they tried to address the problem, but currently the settlement remains in the same place.

The CEPRU, according to the note, is “like no man's land, or almost no one's land, a dusty place with a living community.”

Years after the center closed, 24 homes located in the area where they considered the greatest health risks could exist were moved to an area near the Pediatric Specialties Polyclinic, in the southwest corner of the city, the Planning Department clarified. Physics (today OTU).

At that moment they considered the case closed.

However, in that intervention they failed to include the landfill as one of the dangerous areas, which occupied an area of 3,000 square meters, and reached the limits of the main street of the Isleta community, and that entire area was given over for housing.

Although the local government had promised in 2019 to urgently evaluate the issue to relocate those people settled in an area where there was waste that was harmful to health, they currently have no response to the case.

The CITMA extended its concern about the “repeated violations” of Physical Planning, “with respect to the authorizations for plots and lands” that were delivered “without the corresponding consultations,” but no agency has taken action on the matter.

Specialists detailed at the time that in the CEPRU "the increasing concentrations of heavy metals in the microbiological activity of the soil, especially lead and, to a lesser extent, cadmium, whose values far exceed those permissible according to international standards" had a negative effect.

The warnings were issued “at the local and national level” but the government has not yet removed the hamlet, where people do not have electricity service or a regular water supply.

In Guantánamo the problem ofhousing is critical. Currently there are more than a thousand total collapses that have not been resolved.

This eastern Cuban province has "differentiated attention" from the State, because it is where theinequality in development, with respect to other regions of the country. They created a "program with 106 indications" to solveaccumulated problemsfor decades.