The unsanitary conditions prevailing in Havana and other Cuban cities, due to the accumulation of garbage and the discharge of sewage, also threaten public health facilities, in light of the neglect and inaction of the authorities responsible for urban hygiene.
The Cuban contemporary art critic Jorge Gómez de Mello denounced on Monday the flooding of sewage water and garbage around the Dr. Abelardo Ramírez Márquez polyclinic, located at the corner of 15 and 18, in Vedado.
In a broadcast from his Facebook profile, the Cuban intellectual revealed that this medical center has been surrounded by sewage and a garbage dump located right in front of the emergency entrance for weeks.
"Thus it remains for weeks and weeks," emphasized De Mello, while sweeping his cellphone to show the accumulation of garbage and sewage water from 18th street and at the corner with 15th, directly across from the polyclinic, which once was an important reference in healthcare services in the Cuban capital.
The polyclinic "is literally surrounded by sewage and garbage," he pointed out, and showed how the flood of waste water extends around the entire area of the sidewalk that surrounds it, including the main entrance and the sidewalk in front.
"It's a pity that the video can't convey the stench we felt... Surrounded, undoubtedly surrounded..." De Mello lamented at the end of the video.
The complaint from the artist and art curator adds to dozens made by Cubans on social media about immense dumps and flooding of sewage water in different cities across the country, without any effective action from government authorities to solve the problem.
A post in the Facebook group "El Vedado de hoy" from the previous week shows the disastrous state of another corner of the Havana neighborhood, which was previously considered a model of urban development, but today is not spared from filth and stench everywhere.
"Today the 19th and.......?????? Please, it is impossible to walk," denounced Pedro Luis García in his post, to which dozens of neighbors reacted with comments and photos of what is happening in their blocks and how their lives have become a nightmare.
The garbage collection in Havana is facing a deep crisis due -among other causes- to the poor condition of the collection trucks, many of which are out of service due to a lack of tires, batteries, and other essential parts.
Alberto Ernesto Rodríguez García, provincial director of Communals, reported last week that a budget of 7,000,000 pesos was approved to acquire between 300 and 400 tires and 126 batteries, which would allow for the recovery of the garbage collection truck fleet operating in the capital, thereby improving the critical hygienic situation affecting several municipalities.
In the face of the sharp hygiene crisis in Havana, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel announced at the beginning of the month a comprehensive offensive against the uncontrolled accumulation of garbage.
The unsanitary situation in Cuban cities has significantly influenced the spread of epidemics such as dengue and the Oropouche virus, the end of which is not in sight, as acknowledged by health authorities.
Last week, the director of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Francisco Durán, acknowledged in an interview for the state news network that both diseases remain unresolved in the country: “The little room remains the same,” he summarized.
Dengue cases have spread to 14 provinces, with active transmission in 56 municipalities and 51 health areas; meanwhile, Oropouche is present in all 15 provinces, affecting 110 municipalities.
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