And you think your garbage is overflowing?

the other morning i walked out into our front garden to find various plastic bags, sweet wrappers and a cigarette packet strewn amongst the flower beds, either thrown from the pavement by a random lazy bastard or blown over the gate from the street by wind. needless to say it really really pissed me off to the point where i was muttering under my breath. a few hours later – by coincidence – i found the photo above which i’d bookmarked last year of a polluted river in indonesia and immediately felt thankful, and then pretty depressed.
remember, the photos below aren’t unique. there are many, many places on earth where the infrastructure needed to ensure that such seemingly basic systems are put in place either just don’t exist or are compromised for various reasons – the main one being poverty.  a huge amount of people have been born into this kind of environment and subsequently know nothing else than to walk out of their homes to be faced with seas of litter and be subjected to a serious threat to their health on a daily basis.
note: these photos aren’t necessarily a representation of the areas today. hopefully they’ve since been cleaned up.

naples, italy, early 2008

[above] naples is an unlikely place to see streets covered in litter but for over a decade the area has been victim to a ‘garbage crisis’ resulting from the actions of the camorra, the local mafia, who control the local garbage industry. read more here. i believe this situation has been cleaned up for the time being due to pressure from the eu.

estero de paco, manila, philippines

[above] according to photographer dennis villegas, ‘the garbage in the river (estero de paco) has become so thick that rats are able to run on top of it – chased by cats. the river and its surrounding areas has a very hideous odor’. apparently the ‘pasig river rehabilitation commission’ plan to rid the river of litter by moving all homes so that they sit more than 3 metres from the river bank. read more here.

dharavi, mumbai, india

[above] ‘because water in mumbai, india is prohibitively expensive, many residents of this slum rely on leaks found – or created – in the massive tubes that carry water to more affluent neighborhoods. the poor of the city avoid the garbage and human waste surrounding their dwellings by walking on top of the pipelines’. read more here.

citarum river, west java, indonesia

[above] ‘rapid urbanisation over the last 20 years has seen a rise in untreated household sewage, solid waste and industrial effluents, affecting public health and threatening the livelihood of poor fishing families. a new industry has sprung up – collecting the plastic waste in the river for recycling’. more here,

yoff, dakar, senegal

yoff is a town in dakar. that’s all i know, apart from the fact that it’s heavily polluted.