The combined problem of garbage and transit in Caracas awaits solutions in the final stretch of municipal and regional elections to take place in November across Venezuela. “On environmental problem, traffic, leads to another, the threat to health from garbage. It is essential that the mayors and the different municipalities act together, leaving aside their political differences, Diego Díaz, of the environmental group Vitalis (which is drafting a set of “environmental commandments” for the candidates), told Tierramérica.

Traffic is so congested in the valley where the capital city lies — with five million people and two million vehicles — that the garbage trucks that carry the waste from a dump in the east to the transfer station in the southwest take five hours for a round trip.

In the initial holding site, 50,000 tons of garbage have accumulated since August, rising several meters about the containing wall.