Havana Trash Crisis Deepens Under US Oil Blockade
SkimNews Take
A foreign policy designed to isolate can unintentionally create public health crises, as the halt of essential services like waste collection directly impacts the spread of disease within the targeted population.
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- Havana's waste collection has collapsed under the US oil blockade, with less than half of rubbish trucks operational and pickups reduced from once a week to once a month, forcing residents to dump household waste on the streets.
- Cuban authorities designated 122 temporary waste collection points in Havana, 24 of which use "controlled incineration"; the state-run Cuban Neuroscience Center warned that unofficial fires burn at lower, inconsistent temperatures, releasing substances that can persist in the human body for a decade.
- The US oil restrictions have driven fumigation costs up tenfold, according to Diego Sanchez, a private fumigation company owner, who said inadequate fumigation will likely fuel another mosquito infestation.
- A chikungunya epidemic late last year affected as much as a third of Cuba's population, and Dr. Maria Salvador reports rising hepatitis cases — especially among children — and gastrointestinal illness she links to the mounting rubbish.
- El Bote del 100, Havana's main landfill just kilometres from the city centre, holds 52 million cubic metres of waste across 105 hectares, a smouldering wasteland whose noxious fumes have drawn complaints from nearby communities.
- In March, Cuba's government launched "Cuba Recycles," a year-long initiative to build awareness around recycling and introduce new collection points for recyclable waste, though chef Carlos Blanco conceded: "Here we don't have a culture of recycling. None."
- With Havana's rainy season approaching (May to November), uncollected waste threatens to trigger a fresh wave of mosquito-borne illness, compounding pressure on a medical system already strained by blackouts and scarce medicine, where surgeries are being cancelled.
Why it matters: With the rainy season weeks away and fumigation costs up tenfold, Havana's uncollected waste is primed to fuel a second wave of mosquito-borne disease on top of a chikungunya epidemic that already hit a third of the island — striking a medical system already buckling from blackouts, drug shortages, and cancelled surgeries.
