Given the severity of the public health emergency, military personnel and civilians have been activated to collect solid waste
14ymedio / EFE, Havana, February 28, 2026 – Hundreds of brigades took to the streets of Havana this Friday to collect the mountains of accumulated garbage flooding the city, a public health problem that is now impossible to ignore, worsened by Cuba’s energy crisis, which has severely affected the Communal Services Department.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero told state television that more than 450 brigades, mainly made up of soldiers, have been deployed in several Havana municipalities to collect solid waste.
“We are satisfied with the response to this mobilization. We ask the population to join in because we win when we unite. We will keep fighting despite the difficulties,” he said.
Marrero boasted that ministers, senior officials from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and the central government, officers and soldiers from the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior are taking part in the effort, contributing equipment along with the general population.
The accumulation of garbage has become a critical public health problem.
The Cuban Government has described the “sanitation” of Havana as a priority issue, since the accumulation of garbage has become a critical public health problem. The buildup of waste in Cuba’s streets has reached levels of sanitary emergency that are worsening each day. The situation is due to an extreme fuel shortage and breakdowns in garbage trucks, which have disabled much of Cuba’s Communal Services Department.
According to official data, Havana, with nearly 1.75 million inhabitants, generates about 23,814 cubic meters of waste daily, more than two-thirds of which corresponds to “services and household waste” activity.
The waste overcrowding the streets and the irregularity of collection services have been denounced multiple times in recent months, mainly on social media and in state media. The frequency of collection has been reduced in recent months in the capital and, at times, due to the accumulated volumes, excavators and dump trucks are used.
Cuba is going through a deep economic crisis, manifested in daily blackouts, chronic shortages of food and medicine, high inflation, and a severe shortage of foreign currency and fuel. The Cuban Government blames the U.S. embargo as the main cause of the lack of supplies. Independent experts also point to bureaucratic problems, management failures, neglect, and a lack of human capital due to the strong emigration the country is experiencing.
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.