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Filipinos are not by nature dirty people, in fact far from it. They are conscientious about their personal cleanliness and appearance, and are fastidious in keeping their homes clean. And yet the Philippines is one of the most polluted countries on the planet, a sad state that can be blamed entirely on poverty.

My own neighborhood is a good example of how the overall poverty of the nation leads to pollution. I live in a heavily-populated suburb of Manila, in a neighborhood that would be considered middle-class. The overwhelming majority of our local population is employed (most commute to the city for work), and a significant number of them live in homes they own; the rest of us live in well-kept apartment buildings. There are no "squatters" in our area, people living in makeshift housing on empty property belonging to someone else. We have fairly reliable electric, telephone, and cable TV service. The area is, by native standards, considered to be a nice neighborhood; not high-class, but an address here is a respectable one.

Yet by the standards to which I had become accustomed in the United States, our neighborhood is a cesspool of filth. The municipal government cannot afford to provide service from either of the two water companies that supply most of Manila and the surrounding area, so consequently all water supply is from individual wells. The building I live in actually has two, one connected to an electric pump and pressure tank for normal supply, and one old-fashioned hand pump which is used in case of a power outage. Our water is safe for washing and cooking, but there is no monitoring of the water quality, so that is just a matter of good fortune for us. Drinking water is all bottled. Just as there is no municipal water supply, there is no sewer system either; each building relies on a septic tank. To prevent overloading of septic systems, most houses and buildings have separate drainage systems for "gray water" that discharge directly into small open canals running along the streets. These drainage channels are generally quite nasty, and present a serious problem in flood conditions, which occur frequently during the rainy season.

Garbage collection is a similarly sketchy arrangement, there being no funds available for a municipal service. The garbage in our area is collected weekly under a cooperative arrangement by several Barangays (the Philippine equivalent of a ward or township), who pool their funds to hire a truck and

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