My Two Days in Smokey Mountain – Pt 1 of 2
In October 2008, Sean Lau went on a two-day trip to Smokey Mountain in Manila to see first-hand the conditions of the infamous landfill. He came back with lots of photos of the locals living there and the unimaginable living environment. I helped him pen down his visit and this photo essay is the result.
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Photos: Sean Lau / Words: Bernard Aw
On the hazy October morning in 2008, with sunrays streaming through at a low angle onto my seat, the plane I was in touched down in Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, the Philippines. After the first day spent in the capital city, I began my two days visit to the “other” Smokey Mountains near Manila City.
You might be wondering why I visited Smokey Mountain instead of the usual attractions in Manila such as the medieval city of Intramuros or the Roxas Boulevard (known for its famed Manila sunset)…
I first learn about Smokey Mountain from a friend. In the beginning, I thought he was talking about the picturesque Great Smoky Mountains in southeastern United States, but it turns out that Smokey Mountain is a large landfill slum in metro Manila.
I did my research on the place using the internet and found a trove of somewhat contrasting information on the place. Some said the place is very dangerous and not safe for foreigners, some said the place has been demolished by the local government and some said there are still many squatters living in the “new” Smokey Mountain.
However, one piece of information is similar in most of the articles I read and saw from the pictures; most children living there have little or no education opportunities, have barely sufficient food to eat and have to start working at an early age as a waste-picker. I decided to see for myself the conditions and inhabitants of the slums.
So here I am, under a hazy Manila morning with Jane Walker of PCF, a local NGO based in Smokey Mountain. She will be my guide around the real Smokey Mountain area.
My first sight of Smokey Mountain – rows and rows of haphazard attap huts and of course, the smoke. The landfill area is famous for rotting rubbish at high temperature and catching fire, thus creating the smoky effect.
Jane Walker, the American CEO of PCF, gave me a pair of black PVC boots to don at the doorstep of Smokey Mountain. She said that I will need it very soon. True enough, as the picture above shown, I was sinking in three inch of what seems like mud.
Except it wasn’t mud. It is decomposed rubbish mixed with rainwater. Fortunately, I was wearing the pair of boots that Jane gave me. However, the residents of Smokey Mountain do not have such luxury, they mostly went about bare-footed.
As I walked on with Jane and a local guide, we saw some of the people of Smokey Mountain going about their business, carting rubbish that could be worth several pesos.
This is a typical squatter hut. Most of these huts are built with pieces of wooden planks and poles, with a thatched roof covered with waterproof groundsheets to protect the occupants from the rain.
Here, the boy is sorting through his waste-picking bag for any rubbish that can be sold.
Children always seem to have a penchant for finding joy in most physical spaces they are in, regardless of how dire it is. A trio of boys posed for me as they play a game of hide and seek with their other young friends from the neighbourhood.
The strewed rubbish beneath the elevated wooden walkway the children were standing on illustrates the unhealthy environment that is home to these children. The negative health effects on these children and their family are significant.
When they are not playing police and thief, the children double up as waste-pickers to help out the family income. They scramble onto mini-landfills dotted around the dumpsite area to look for valuable scrap metal that can be sold for money.
On the left photo, a boy was showing me a corrugated piece of metal that appears to have a rusty screw on it. This boy (and many other waste-pickers) faces the risk of contracting tetanus everyday from these rusty scrap metal pieces. According to PCF, an inoculation programme that includes immunising against tetanus and among other diseases such as typhoid, TB, measles, would cost £85 per person.
This boy, a waste-picker, is putting on his oversized and mismatched protective boots for work. The boots are so many sizes larger that he has to put on multiple layers of thick socks so that he could fit his scrawny legs in.
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End of Part One. See Part two
Edit (29 April 2009): If you would like to donate, please visit PCF website or Sean Lau’s Charity Section.
