A cloud of waste particulates is soaring this month over Ciudad Guayana, a city located 600 kilometers southeast of Caracas. With a population of about one million, it is home to Venezuela's iron, steel, aluminum and hydroelectric industries.

“The main cause is that the Cambalache sanitary landfill has for years been used as a simple solid waste dump, which out of neglect are burned and create a toxic cloud that sickens the people of Ciudad Guayana,” community activist and attorney Eliécer Calzadilla told Tierramérica.

Diego Díaz, of the environmental group Vitalis, said the “inappropriate management of urban solid waste” heads the list of environmental problems confronted by his organization.

Only one of Venezuela's 150 sanitary landfills meets the environmental and health standards for waste disposal established by national law.