Crisis Watch
Havana's trash crisis suggests government dysfunction
Havana is sliding into a public-health emergency as uncollected garbage piles up across the capital.
![A man throws rubbish on a street in Havana next to a wall reading "No rubbish" on February 23, 2026. [Yamil Lage/AFP]](/gc7/images/2026/03/03/54831-afp__20260223__98nf2nj__v1__highres__cubauscrisis-370_237.webp)
Global Watch |
Havana is sliding into a public-health emergency in plain sight, with mountains of uncollected trash piling up across the capital as the city's waste system breaks down.
Municipal services and state media reports indicate that only 44 of Havana's 106 garbage trucks have been able to keep operating amid fuel shortages, slowing collection across neighborhoods.
Residents describe a citywide failure that lasts days at a time.
"It's all over the city," Havana resident Jose Ramon Cruz told Reuters, adding: "It's been more than 10 days since a garbage truck came."
![Residents of the Jesus Maria neighborhood walk past trash on a street in Havana on November 20, 2025. [Adelberto Roque/AFP]](/gc7/images/2026/03/03/54832-afp__20251120__84n873h__v1__highres__cubahealthepidemicchikungunya-370_237.webp)
The waste piles -- filled with used bags, bottles and food scraps -- are attracting flies and stench, forcing pedestrians and drivers to detour around "imposing heaps," Reuters reported.
Beyond the immediate disruption, Havana's sanitation breakdown exposes deeper systemic fragility.
For decades, the Cuban state leaned on external lifelines -- first Soviet backing, then heavily subsidized Venezuelan oil. With that cushion gone, essential services are failing in sequence, starting with waste collection.
The same fuel shortages are squeezing the economy.
Tourism, a key source of foreign currency, has been hit by jet-fuel constraints. Multiple Canadian airlines canceled flights after Cuba said there would be no jet fuel for aircraft seeking to refuel, AP reported.
Government dysfunction
Cuba's government has implemented rationing measures to protect essential services.
However, while stopgap measures and rationing may reduce the most visible trash piles, they do little to restore capacity.
The pattern reveals a brittle model: centralized control paired with dependence on external sponsors. When lifelines weaken, margins vanish -- and the structure begins to fail.
The crisis is a blunt demonstration of cause and effect: under severe resource constraints, the state struggles to deliver basic governance.
The garbage in the streets is not just a sanitation failure -- it is a visible marker of dysfunction, with ordinary Cubans paying the price.