Garbage Piles Up Beside Crumbling Building in Central Havana

Havana garbage has piled up into a large mound around a deteriorating building at Belascoaín and San Miguel streets in Centro Habana, according to footage shared on Facebook on Friday, October 16. Content creator Liena López Delgado recorded the scene, bringing renewed attention to waste collection failures and concerns about the structure’s condition.

The video shows accumulated trash beside the ruined building. The recording raises concerns about a possible collapse, but the report does not include a structural engineering assessment.

Garbage piles up at Belascoaín and San Miguel

As the camera moves through the area, the person narrating points to the debris and the deteriorating structure. Viewers responding to the post criticized conditions at the intersection and the lack of an effective response from authorities.

One commenter asked how long residents would have to live amid such conditions and disease. Another described poor sanitation as an additional burden on Cubans already facing multiple daily hardships.

Other Havana neighborhoods face similar conditions

In September, nearby Escobar Street was shown blocked by garbage, discarded furniture, rubble and sewage. In early October, another video by López showed waste accumulating along the Belascoaín-facing exterior wall of the Bernardo García funeral home.

Other reports described trash covering part of Zanja Street and a large garbage pile in Luyanó, in the Diez de Octubre municipality, that had reportedly remained uncollected for more than four months outside a technical school.

Cubanos por el Mundo’s reporting has documented sewage and sanitation problems in multiple neighborhoods. A separate account described garbage extending for three kilometers in central Havana. These reports are in Spanish.

Sanitation problems add to public health concerns

The Global Dengue Observatory, based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, estimated 11,235 dengue cases in Cuba so far this year as of October 4. That figure was 9.2 times the country’s average over the preceding five years. The Cuban government does not publish regular official dengue case counts.

On September 25, Deputy Public Health Minister Carilda Peña García acknowledged on state television that acute diarrheal illnesses and hepatitis were increasing. She linked the situation to limitations in environmental sanitation, water treatment and waste collection. Health authorities have also reported an increase in acute respiratory infections.

Those reports do not establish that any particular garbage pile caused the increases in illness. Persistent waste and pest infestations nevertheless compound public health concerns.

New trucks have not ended the Havana garbage crisis

Havana’s government added 20 Chinese-made trucks and more than 240 container boxes in September, with the containers’ metal structures to be assembled by Cuban industry in Guanabo. The investment exceeded 1 million euros, according to Canal Caribe. Provincial government coordinator Alexis González Inclán acknowledged that the project was not a definitive solution.

A separate pilot project to collect waste in El Vedado with electric tricycles, which planned 30 vehicles but started with only five on July 1, also failed to meet its objective, according to 14ymedio. Pedro Garcés, president of the Rampa Popular Council, acknowledged in August that the goal had not been achieved.

Official figures cited put Havana’s daily solid waste generation at roughly 30,000 cubic meters, far beyond what the available trucks and equipment can collect. Cuban authorities have pointed to fuel shortages as the main reason for collection difficulties.

At Belascoaín and San Miguel, the newly shared footage shows the conditions residents continue to confront: uncollected waste beside a badly deteriorated structure. The city’s announced investments have yet to produce a lasting solution to the Havana garbage problem across affected neighborhoods.

American English adaptation of our original Spanish report. This version incorporates the October 17 clarifications on the official’s remarks, the container structures and the daily waste figure.