In: UA Magazine 3 - Health aspects of urban agriculture
Manila typifies the best and the worst of Asian cities. Affluent residential areas with functional sewerage and regular waste collection border squalid areas of cardboard shacks with no amenities. High-rise office and apartment buildings in the municipality of Makati stand in contrast to the squatter areas in Taguig, Muntinlupa, and Mandaluyong.The collapse of the Payatas garbage dump in August 2000 and the deaths of at least 220 squatters who lived at the dump site to scavenge discarded refuse are symptomatic of urban blight and poverty which threaten civility, governance and life itself.