Summary
Highlights
Garbage, including plastics and biodegradable materials, is decades old and creates an unpleasant smell. Many residents use communal comfort rooms or resort to unsanitary practices. The village is severely overpopulated, with 60,000 people per square kilometer, almost double that of Mumbai. This is attributed to the fact that people can build houses freely, attracting Filipinos from various provinces.
Anahaw Village, with an area of only one hectare, is home to approximately 600 poor Filipinos. The village suffers from severe pollution, with residents living amidst garbage. Despite the harsh conditions, people come here because anyone can build a house.
Upon entering Anahaw Village, visitors are greeted by narrow roads, tangled houses, and pervasive trash. Pets and their feces are scattered, intensifying the bad odor. The video tours a house that, while above average for the area, still faces challenges like a restroom that leads directly into the water below.
The President of Anahaw Village, who has lived there since 1986, explains that the population has grown significantly from 27 families in 1986, leading to increased garbage problems. Despite scheduled trash collection, many residents do not participate, and clean-up drives are ineffective.
Despite being near a large body of water, clean drinking water is scarce and expensive, costing 5 pesos per container from a community tank. The wooden and bamboo pathways are dangerous and constantly damaged, posing risks, especially to children. These narrow paths also serve as extensions of homes for daily activities like bathing and cooking.
The densely populated area suffers from significant noise pollution from children playing, residents gathering, and various animal and human sounds. A large portion of the population consists of children, who are direct victims of the prevailing poverty.
Just a short drive from Anahaw Village is Muntinlupa City, one of the wealthiest municipalities in the Philippines. Properties in Muntinlupa can be worth billions, far exceeding the value of all houses in Anahaw Village combined, highlighting the extreme societal division between these neighboring areas.
An old resident living in a small hut describes the difficulty of life in Anahaw Village due to lack of permanent jobs, earning only 100 pesos a day washing dishes. Her home, made of salvaged materials, is unstable but she is not afraid of it falling because it would only fall onto garbage. She mentions the unsanitary practice of throwing human waste directly under houses, leading to an infestation of large rats.
The resident explains that the smell is worse during dry seasons when the underlying garbage steams. She also notes the presence of troublemakers and confirms that most residents are tenants, not owners. The biggest complaint is the slippery pathways during rain. The residents' main wish is to be given a small place to live if they are evicted, rather than just being left homeless, as they are often prevented from renovating their houses due to potential demolition.