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The journalist, essayist, critic, and storyteller Frank Padrón Nodarse denounced this Sunday the presence of a large improvised dump at the corner of 25 and H, in the heart of Vedado, Havana, near a Childcare Center visible in the background of the image.
"The corner of my house, 25 and H. In the background, the Children's Circle. Community, please!" expressed briefly Padrón on his Facebook wall, a phrase that summarizes citizen frustration.
The mound accumulates boxes and disintegrated cardboard, plastic bags, construction debris, damaged appliances, broken wood, dry palm fronds, and all kinds of mixed household waste.
The proximity of the landfill to an institution that houses children exacerbates the health concerns raised, especially with the rainy season about to begin.
The comments on the post reflect an outrage that goes far beyond Vedado. "I no longer worry about my neighborhood, Havana is all the same, I will never understand how the government can't handle waste collection and cleaning," wrote a citizen.
Another warned about the immediate consequences: "And now the rains, then the epidemics, and there are no resources to face the situation."
One neighbor pointed out that the problem is not limited to that corner: "The corner by my house, Párraga and Milagros, is the same. Almost all corners are like this."
The debate in the comments also addressed the economic roots of the collapse. "How are they going to pay a garbage collector well? If someone who worked for 45 years only receives 3,500 Cuban pesos as a pension. Everything is wrong," pointed out another user, in response to those suggesting hiring people with carts and horses, as is done in some provinces.
"My God! That is beyond words... Is it really so difficult to collect the garbage, even if it's with carts?" summarized a citizen in the comment thread.
The report adds to a series of viral complaints that have multiplied. The historic garbage dump on Virtudes Street in Central Havana has been overflowing for at least nine months, and a waste fire in Los Sitios recently highlighted the collapse of the waste collection system in the Cuban capital.
The crisis has documented structural roots. In February, only 44 out of the 106 garbage collection trucks in the capital were operational due to a lack of fuel and the deterioration of the vehicle fleet, while Havana generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste per day, with just 10,000 containers available when it would need between 20,000 and 30,000.
The regime itself has acknowledged its inability. In December, following a meeting led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the government admitted that it cannot clean the capital nor pay street sweepers a decent wage.
In September 2025, the Minister of Science, Technology, and the Environment was even more direct: "That waste is not contained; it is scattered all over Havana."
Epidemiologists link the accumulation of waste to outbreaks of leptospirosis, hepatitis A, dengue, and oropouche, diseases whose risk multiplies with the rains of June.
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