The machines sent to clean the garbage dumps in the Quintanales Alley, in the Naranjal Norte neighborhood of Matanzas, ended up destroying them, leaving the area without any designated spot for disposing of waste, lamented a report from the official newspaper Girón published this Friday.
The Community Services Department built several concrete block containers a few years ago on both sides of the alley to regulate the disposal of waste on the street that surrounds the neighborhood.
The problem arose when the lack of systematic cleaning allowed waste to accumulate to levels that required the use of heavy machinery.
"The volume of solid waste was so large that it became necessary to use mechanical shovels for its removal. What was the result? The equipment partially or completely destroyed the ponds," the text explained.
Of all the original deposits, only one remains standing, and the author himself warned that it will "meet the same fate."
After the destruction, the nearest neighbors to each site cleaned the area, fenced it off, and placed prohibition signs. The effect was counterproductive: the entire area was left without any gathering point.
"The area has become devoid of those vital points for waste collection. The return to anarchic attitudes is evident," noted the report.
Nylon bags and cardboard boxes are now piling up at ground level, despite the repeated complaints from the president of the local party nucleus, the educator Silvia García Álvarez, who, according to Girón, "has raised her voice in several forums" without receiving a solution.
The state media itself acknowledged that institutional responses are insufficient.
"I am aware of state alternatives to address the issue of poor communal hygiene; however, they are unstable and insufficient," he emphasized.
This episode is not an isolated case. This Saturday, residents of the Biplanta neighborhood in the city of Cárdenas also reported piles of waste blocking entire streets, an increase in rodents and insects within homes, and makeshift burnings, with no response from Communal Services, Public Health, or the local government.
In May, Girón published a photo report that starkly documented the severe accumulation of garbage in the streets of the city, while warning that the crisis has shifted from being merely an aesthetic issue to becoming a serious health threat to its inhabitants.
The health consequences are documented. In April, authorities issued a provincial alert for hepatitis A with 18 active cases in Versalles and seven in La Marina.
Two months later, seven new confirmed cases and 49 suspected cases were reported in just one week, concentrated in Versalles, while Matanzas accounted for 40% of the total annual provincial cases.
More than 300,000 residents of Matanzas are experiencing issues with stable access to drinking water, and with the rains the debris carried away reaches the San Juan and Yumurí rivers and the city's bay.
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