Garbage Is Choking the Amazon's Biggest City
Garbage Is Choking the Amazon's Biggest City
By
Elaíze Farias
The seemingly insurmountable pollution of Manaus, Brazil
Maria da Conceição Peixote has lived in a floating house on the Igarapé do Quarenta, one of the two longest waterways in Manaus, for most of her life. “I can’t afford to move,” says the 63-yearold housekeeper. “But it’s hard.”
Da Conceição and her husband, Natanel Baima de Oliveira, 60, a produce vendor, are among the hundreds of families who make their homes on the margins of Manaus’ polluted waters in tiny wooden houses perched on stilts called palafitas. Some 400 palafitas are located on the Igarapé alone — standing above the accumulating refuse. Things get...
Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.
