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The streets of Havana have become a source of pollution that directly threatens what its residents eat.
The Food Monitor Program alerted this month about a health emergency that adds to the energy crisis: accumulation of uncollected trash, sewage leaks, collapsed drains, and wastewater discharges flowing through the streets of the Cuban capital.
According to the independent food monitoring organization, these contaminating hotspots are not just an aesthetic issue but a direct threat to the food supply chain.
"Flies, cockroaches, rats, and other vectors can carry pathogenic microorganisms to the food consumed by the population," the FMP warned in its public statement.
The logistical collapse behind this emergency has concrete figures. Only 44 of the 106 garbage trucks in Havana are operational—just 41% of the fleet—grounded by a shortage of diesel and mechanical deterioration. The city generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of solid waste daily, but up to 23,814 cubic meters are left uncollected each day.
The underlying problem is structural. The Havana sewage system dates back to between 1908 and 1914, designed for a city of 600,000 inhabitants, which now houses two million people without adequate infrastructure maintenance for decades.
In the face of the State's inaction, many residents choose to burn garbage on the streets, producing toxic smoke and causing further damage to public infrastructure.
In June of last year, young military personnel were deployed to collect trash in Havana, highlighting the shortcomings of the civil waste management system.
On June 21, activist Guillermo Rodríguez Sánchez documented the sale of fruits and vegetables on the streets of Havana, surrounded by waste. A biologist warned at that time that an outbreak of gastroenteritis could erupt at any moment.
The health consequences are already devastating. Cuba closed 2025 with at least 81,909 cases of dengue and chikungunya and 65 official deaths, a outbreak that The New York Times directly linked to the garbage crisis. So far in 2026, the outbreak remains active with over 2,800 cases in 134 municipalities across the 14 provinces. Epidemiologists also associate trash dumps with outbreaks of leptospirosis, hepatitis A, and oropouche.
The FMP points out a contradiction that worsens the situation: while the health environment deteriorates, the authorities focus their oversight on those who produce and sell food, "ignoring that these individuals work within the same contaminated environment that affects the entire population."
This health emergency overlaps with an unprecedented food crisis. The FMP reports that 96.91% of the Cuban population lacks adequate access to food, 33.9% of households reported that at least one member went to bed hungry at least once in the last 30 days, and 80% of households lost refrigerated food due to power outages.
The organization warns that the regime shifts the responsibility onto an already impoverished population, "even forcing them to take on the cleaning of public spaces in the absence of state solutions." For the FMP, "the deterioration of sanitation also threatens the right to safe food."
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