landfill

Cateura, one of the poorest cities in Paraguay, is ruled by its enormous landfill. Nearly everyone who calls this small town home works at the landfill and lives in a shack made from corrugated metal and scrap wood that were found among the garbage. Over the years, ton after ton of solid waste flowed down from the capital city, Asunción, to the landfill here in Cateura. Because the people had no place to dispose of their own garbage, the trash piled high in the city and filled the lagoon, leaving the land and the water polluted and unsanitary.