In Cuba: Sleeping Fully Clothed In Case Of Building Collapse

Faizan Hashmi Published July 04, 2022 | 08:10 AM

Havana, July 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jul, 2022 ) :"When we go to sleep, it is with the fear of not waking up again," says Elisa Bacyan, resident in one of about 700 apartment buildings deemed unsafe in the Cuban capital, where collapses are frequent.

Bacyan, 51, lives alone with her daughter Lesyanis, 12 in an old-town building named "Edificio Cuba" that dates from 1940.

The six-story building belongs to the Cuban State, like most others on the communist island. It sports 114 small rooms that house 92 families rent-free.

It used to be an elegant hotel, say residents.

Today, the floor planks are broken, the ceilings, columns and passageway walls reveal twisted metallic skeletons, and cracks and leaks abound.

Children "cannot even play here, because every now and again a piece (of building) comes down," said Bacyan, with tears in her eyes.

"I've already lost a child" to illness, Bacyan told AFP. "I do not want to lose my daughter too." - 'Not recommended' - Due to a lack of oversight and maintenance, buildings collapse fully or in part in Havana with shocking frequency, even more so during the rainy and hurricane season from June to November.

In 2020, a balcony gave way, killing three young girls.

This year, the first rains of June caused 146 buildings in the capital to partially crumble and two to come down completely, resulting in the death of a 69-year-old man, according to official media.

Nobody knows who will be next.

Official figures show that about 37 percent of 3.9 million residential buildings in the country were considered to be in an undesirable state by the end of 2020.

A building specialist, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, told AFP that Bacyan's home, "Edificio Cuba," had "structural defects from floor to ceiling.""It is not recommended that people live there."In this building, as in many others, the makeshift addition of mezzanines, bathrooms and water tanks significantly add to the load they were built to withstand.