
A resident of the Altahabana neighborhood in the Boyeros municipality reported on Facebook the serious accumulation of garbage at the corner of 7th and L, a location situated just behind the William Soler University Pediatric Hospital and only a few meters from the Rafael Orejón secondary school.
Bárbara Eshter Cárdenas posted several photographs depicting mounds of solid waste, debris, cardboard, plastics, and stagnant water that have nearly blocked vehicular access on that block.
"In the end, now the trend is just to pick up right before this block, but the problem is worse: the street is completely closed off and there is barely enough space for motorcycles to pass, and that’s the biggest issue," wrote the complainant.
The situation has forced cyclists, motorcyclists, and even horse-drawn carts to invade the garden of the building where Cárdenas lives in order to continue down 7th Street, according to his own account.
In one of the images, a family with a stroller can be seen walking along the sidewalk next to the dumpster, illustrating the daily exposure of neighbors and children to that deteriorated environment.
The complainant did not limit her grievance to the trash issue: she also pointed out the complete lack of solutions for the prolonged blackouts affecting the neighborhood.
"Zero opportunities for a solution, like in other places, to set up a rotating circuit for the endless blackouts because they just don't feel like it, and every response given is an absurd justification," he wrote.
His conclusion was a desperate appeal to the local authorities: "God have mercy on us because the leaders of this place do not exist. And if they do, only you know what they are for."
The comments from other users reflected outrage and sadness. "This is exactly why there are so many illnesses; it's depressing to see how far we've fallen," one of them wrote. Another pointed out that a relative of theirs lives in that building and is hospitalized due to a virus. A third comment attributed the deterioration of the street to wastewater leaks and lamented the absence of inspectors to enforce penalties.
"Just this trash and more trash with everything that brings flies, mosquitoes, rats, and all kinds of filthy animals," Cárdenas summarized in his post, a phrase that encapsulates the frustration of those who live daily next to a dump that local authorities have not addressed.
The complaint is part of a structural crisis of waste collection in Havana that worsened during 2026: at the beginning of that year, only 44 out of the 106 collection trucks in the capital were operational —41.5% of the fleet— due to a shortage of diesel and mechanical failures, while the city generates between 24,000 and 30,000 cubic meters of waste daily.
The Boyeros municipality had already been mentioned in previous reports for micro-dumps that had not been collected for over 72 hours. In September 2026, 20 new trucks from China were added, but the problem persisted in several areas of the capital, including the neighborhood of Luyanó, where residents reported an active dump for four months.
The health background exacerbates citizens' concerns: Cuba reported 11,235 cases of dengue as of October 4, 2026, a figure equivalent to 9.2 times the historical average of the past five years, with all four serotypes of the virus circulating simultaneously, according to data from the Global Dengue Observatory of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The accumulated garbage, wastewater outlets, and stagnant water create breeding grounds for the mosquito that transmits this disease, a risk that the residents of Altahabana themselves identify in their comments.
The William Soler Hospital itself, a national reference in pediatric surgery, had been the subject of previous complaints in August 2026 regarding the poor condition of its internal facilities, with photographs showing poorly maintained restrooms, humidity, and debris in its hallways.
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