The Integral Teaching Polyclinic Rosa Elena Simeón Negrín, located in Bejucal, Mayabeque province, keeps its containers overflowing with waste while the micro, small, and medium enterprise (mipyme) responsible for their removal awaits a document to proceed.
The report was published this Friday on Facebook by Pedro Luis González Acevedo, along with an image of two green industrial containers, marked with the initials of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), which are overflowing with trash. Cardboard boxes and other waste are also piled up on the ground, beneath a zinc roof.
González pointed out that the issue is not due to a lack of resources, but rather to bureaucratic obstacles. According to his statement, the small and medium-sized enterprise responsible for waste collection is unable to pick up the trash because its manager, identified as "Batista," is still waiting for an authorization that has yet to be issued.
"There is no longer a place in Public Health to vote on solid waste," wrote the complainant, who recalled that the center generates waste of various types, including biological, sharp, and general waste.
The author also questioned why the accumulation had not been addressed, arguing that an official visit to the National Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Bejucal could have confirmed the situation had it taken place in front of the polyclinic. His comment referred to the attention that facilities receive during institutional tours.
The reactions to the post reflected complaints about the accumulation of garbage at various locations in the area. One resident described the trash bins at the corners of 7th and 24th as disgusting, while another warned about the risks for those who rummage through the waste and could come into contact with contaminated materials.
Other comments directed their criticisms at President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the official visits to places set up to receive the authorities. "That's what they should have shown Canel, not the painted parade," wrote a user.
"The garbage is eating us alive, which is why there are so many diseases," expressed another neighbor. One citizen summarized his assessment with a phrase that expanded the criticism beyond Bejucal: "It is all of Cuba that suffers from a long and deadly illness."
In August of last year, the Cuban poet and improviser Juan Carlos García Guridi denounced micro-dumps on every corner of that same neighborhood, just one block from the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party.
And the pattern repeats throughout the Island, considering that in March, residents of Guanabacoa reported the burning of trash next to a polyclinic; while last week, citizens documented the expansion of an improvised dump near the Lenin Hospital in Holguín.
Furthermore, in October 2024, a clinic in Vedado was surrounded by sewage and waste for weeks.
Minsap admitted in September that communicable diseases have increased amid challenges with water supply and treatment, environmental sanitation issues, waste accumulation, and limitations in combating the mosquito Aedes aegypti.
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