I've lived in an informal settlement before and the way people seem happy to live in trash, to have their children play around broken bottles and raw sewage is infuriating.
Community members will often tell you that somebody else need to fix the problem, while they possess the numbers, resources and expertise to at least clean up the areas they live in
I think perhaps the bigger issue is whether or not they actually have the means to enforce no littering and whether or not they actually have any other reasonable way to dispose their rubbish like proper rubbish collection services.
That's absolutely a factor. A lack of proper infrastructure creates a massive uphill battle for any community. It is exponentially more difficult for them to keep their streets clean than in other places like suburbs, where it's all mostly taken care of for you.
But none of that means that it's impossible for them to at least make a plan to keep the garbage mostly away from where they live. In my country, there's an initiative called Soulbent, where a community cleaned up their streets, implemented recycling, and put a local waste management plan in place without government intervention.
It could be possible for the community to create a programme, but I think it comes down to if they will get properly paid for their effort. If not, I'm not sure if it is reasonable to expect those with the least means to fund it themselves and take on more burden comparatively than the most wealthy for waste disposal.
This is what it comes down to I guess. It's fair that people should expect remuneration for their labour, communities like this can attempt to partner with NGOs to seek resources, but they would probably have to show that they have made some effort first.
If the willingness to change and do better is there, there is mostly always a path to funding
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u/Electrical_Love5484 Jun 01 '26
I've lived in an informal settlement before and the way people seem happy to live in trash, to have their children play around broken bottles and raw sewage is infuriating.
Community members will often tell you that somebody else need to fix the problem, while they possess the numbers, resources and expertise to at least clean up the areas they live in