Story perspectives

Havana Volunteers Ring Bell, Trucks Stalled, Disease Threatens

6/5/2026

Summary

Story summary

Residents launched the El Batazo project in Havana blocks, where volunteers ring a bell daily to collect trash and haul waste to a landfill.
Municipal services collected only 57% of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools of waste daily after a U.S. energy blockade caused power outages, water shortages and a fuel crisis that halted garbage trucks.
Rising temperatures and upcoming rains may increase disease-carrying flies and mosquitoes around the rotting piles.

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Story summary

Residents launched the El Batazo project in Havana blocks, where volunteers ring a bell daily to collect trash and haul waste to a landfill.
Municipal services collected only 57% of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools of waste daily after a U.S. energy blockade caused power outages, water shortages and a fuel crisis that halted garbage trucks.
Rising temperatures and upcoming rains may increase disease-carrying flies and mosquitoes around the rotting piles.