Smokey Mountain

Smokey Mountain is a large rubbish dump in Manila, Philippines (WP). Consisting of over two million tonnes of waste, it has operated for more than 40 years and is known for decomposing at such high temperatures that it will catch fire, a fact from which the location derives its name. Indeed, fires at Smokey Mountain have caused many deaths.

Doubleyou RA (WRA) - Triptych A Life in Rubbish. Everyday life on 'Smokey Mountain', Manila

Smokey Mountain has a large squatter community, and it is estimated that 30,000 people live near the site, and make their living from picking through the rubbish at Smokey Mountain.

In 1993, a joint venture agreement between the National Housing Authority (NHA) and R-II Builders Inc. (RBI) was made to build a low-cost housing project at Smokey Mountain. On 15 August 2007, this agreement was declared valid by the Philippine Supreme Court.

Projects have been enforced by the Government and non-government organizations to allow urban resettlement sites for the slum dwellers. According to a UN-Habitat report, over 20 million people in the Philippines live in slums, and in the city of Manila alone, 50% of the over 11 million inhabitants live in slum areas.

This article contains content from Wikipedia. Current versions of the GNU FDL article Smokey Mountain on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article

WP

See Also

Werner Raffetseder#Leben im Müll – A Life in Rubbish Werner Raffetseder's documentation (exhibitions, photographs, and book) of the lives of those scavenging a living from the refuse of Manila

References

Category:Squatting]]Template:waste-stub