WTMP PhotoPhilia D12 Smokey Mountain Housing

''Smokey Mountain'' was the term coined for a large landfill once located in

Tondo, Manila Tondo is a district located in Manila, Philippines. It is the largest in terms of area and population of Manila's sixteen districts, with a Census-estimated 631,313 people in 2015 and consists of two congressional districts. It is also the seco ...

History

''Smokey Mountain'' operated for more than 50 years, consisting of over two million metric tons of waste. The flammable substances on decomposing waste led to fires which has resulted in many deaths. On March 19, 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 The Supreme Court ( fil, Kataas-taasang Hukuman; colloquially referred to as the ''Korte Suprema'' lso used in formal writing is the highest court in the Philippines. The Supreme Court was established by the Second Philippine Commission on Ju ...

. The area was officially closed in 1995. The site was turned into public housing for the impoverished people living in the slums surrounding the landfill. The slums were also cleared, which was the home of 30,000 people that make their living from picking through the landfill's rubbish. In the 1990s Jane Walker arrived in the Philippines on holiday and her taxi took her by Smokey Mountain. She was intrigued by the Tondo slums and she returned back to Southampton where her plan to do something took place. In time she would raise money, raise funds and build businesses that transformed rubbish into products like handbags. She was awarded an MBE in 2006 and in 2012 she was living in the Philippines. 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 The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

live in slums, and in the city of

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

alone, 50% of the over 11 million inhabitants live in slum areas.

Migration to The Payatas Dump

When Smokey Mountain closed down in 1995, many scavengers migrated to the

Payatas dumpsite The Payatas dumpsite is a former garbage dump in the barangay of the same name in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. History The Payatas dumpsite, established in the 1970s, was an open dumpsite in Lupang Pangako in Payatas, Quezon City. Pri ...

, where another large scavenging community arose. In 2000, a landslide at the Payatas dump killed over two hundred scavengers. As of 2007, approximately 80,000 people live at the Payatas dump.

References

{{coord, 14, 37, 56, N, 120, 57, 37, E, region:PH_source:kolossus-zhwiki, display=title Landfills in the Philippines Slums in the Philippines Environmental issues in the Philippines Geography of Manila Tondo, Manila Former squats Squatting in the Philippines

History

Migration to The Payatas Dump

See also

References