Reports of garbage burning in areas of the Metropolitan Park of Havana are increasing and residents are becoming increasingly concerned about the health impact from inhaling carbon dioxide.
In several Facebook posts, Yorni Cabrera, a resident of Puentes Grandes in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, documented the landscape of pollution that the inhabitants of that area must face daily.
“¡¡¡They haven’t cared about Clínico Quirúrgico de 26!!! ¡¡¡They haven’t cared about the entire community of Puentes Grandes in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality!!! Besides exterminating the ecosystem, flora, and fauna of the Metropolitan Park of Havana,” complained this resident, referring to the authorities.
"We are trapped inside the house in the midst of a thick mass of toxic smoke from all the garbage being burned uncontrollably. Thank God we have electricity today to run at least a small fan... I have my mother in an asthma crisis and I can't even take her to a hospital because if I try to go out, she will suffocate. There is no transportation; our car is out of gas," he recounted.
Cabrera's complaint is not the first. On Friday, CiberCuba reported on the testimony of music producer Laura Martín Nieto, who also expressed concerns about the smoke from burning garbage in the areas of the Metropolitan Park of Havana.
“This is the situation that the central area of Puentes Grandes in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality has been facing for several days, after someone had the brilliant idea of creating a waste incineration site in the areas of the Havana Metropolitan Park,” she reported on Facebook.
Martín Nieto explained that the burning takes place “just 50 meters from the 26 Clinical Surgical Hospital and in the midst of a densely populated neighborhood of elderly people and children.”
“Visible respiratory effects are already starting to be felt. Carbon monoxide KILLS. We do not know the health and environmental costs of burning all types of waste. I ask that you share this urgent citizen complaint!” he lamented.
This complaint joins others that report health impacts due to the burning and accumulation of trash in Havana, amid a context of collapsing public services.
A few days ago, in Lawton, neighbors also raised concerns about the burning of waste in the middle of a residential area due to the lack of oil to transport them to landfills.
From Regla, another neighbor recounted a similar situation: “They were also burning garbage at the sand quarry. The smoke was so thick that you couldn’t even see the bay or Havana, and the smell was horrible. They are killing us little by little.”
A resident in Diez de Octubre stated that the city is filled with garbage because there is no daily collection. "Additionally, this creates an infectious hotspot in their facilities with the emission of smoke and toxic gases, worsening the health conditions of the population in general."
Recently, a complaint sent to CiberCuba accused the municipal government of San Miguel del Padrón of ordering collection trucks to dump “all the trash” from the municipality in front of a pre-university institution in Havana.
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