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For years, Carolina Fernández Rodríguez endured a sore throat that had no obvious medical explanation. But Fernández, who lives on the outskirts of the Ecuadorean coastal city of Guayaquil and told her story to reporter Jorge Alvarado of Expreso newspaper, had a theory about her ailment. She called it "La Chamba." That is the name local residents gave a nearby dump that until four years ago received Guayaquil's garbage. Fires at La Chamba released a constant cloud of toxic smoke and gas that stung the eyes and irritated the throats of people in San Eduardo and the adjacent community of El Paraíso. Today the noxious fumes are gone. The city of Guayaquil, under the leadership of Mayor León Febres Cordero, has contracted garbage collection to Vachagnon, a private company. A new, sanitary landfill far from San Eduardo is being managed by another company, ILM. The old La Chamba site has been covered with soil and surrounded by concrete walls. The IDB is partially funding a study to determine how to seal the site so the land can be used for other purposes. "The municipality has not yet decided how to use the land, but I am leaning toward planting it with trees to create a much-needed ‘green lung' for the city," mayor Cordero recently told Alvarado. |
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