Storm Ondoy Research Paper

The poorest of the poor among the people of the Philippines has been described to live in Smoky Mountain. It is located in Quezon City and the 22-hectare land is used as an open dumpsite where most of the garbage of the country’s capital is disposed of. In this place, trash can be piled as high as a seven-foot story building seeing that about 3,000 unit tons of solid waste has been deposited here since the year 1993 (Florano E., 2015). Moreover, the stench is also described to be unbearable. According to an insight of a journalist, “There is no inch of ground that is not covered in garbage. These range from plastics, bottles, aluminum, to cardboards.” Despite all of these, however, there are still people living there in the hopes that their
She is one of the many residents who was affected by the Tropical Storm Ondoy. It destroyed their home including their livelihood. Michelle’s mother named Esther recounted that she could not send all of her offsprings to school since she is not capable of affording books, uniforms, and transportation fees. Additionally, Brown told the harsh conditions he has discerned during his visits in Payatas. The lives of both adults and children are at risk because some parts of the dump are unstable which could easily collapse on rainy days. In worst case scenarios, the ‘landslide’ could cover both workers and their homes beneath garbage, Moreover, they are at a risk of acquiring serious diseases such as respiratory infections, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and tuberculosis. Despite everything, Michelle keeps a positive attitude. She has this thought kept in her mind that only through perseverance will a person be able to achieve their dreams. It was a lesson she learned from one of her readings about
Macasusi recounted the time when she was still new to the trade which was in 1999. She said that she was only able to earn sixteen pesos a day since she does not know what to collect except for utensils and plastic cups. A month in the trade, however, and she was able to add an additional 150 php to the meager income of 300 php a day that her husband is able to provide as a construction worker. After six months, her whole family decided to live in the dumpsite where her husband also decided to become a scavenger due to the hardship of finding a decent paying job. When the garbage-slide occurred in 2000, the Macasusi family lost their source of income. Moreover with the biogas that was emanating around the area causing unannounced fires, the family decided to evacuate and go back to their previous home. For the next three months, she was sharing 300php worth of money a day with her best friend which they earned after scavenging for seven hours during the night. Their life got better though when Editha became a beneficiary of the SALT foundation. It is a non-government community support organization run by the Japanese. With them, Edith was able to earn thrice the amount she did when she was still scavenging since she was taught how to sew. Moreover, with luck, she was able to set up a sari-sari store near the dumpsite with the money she won from “Willie of Fortune”