Scavenging to survive in Venezuela

The Guaire River is the sewer of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. The city's wastewater empties into the river, turning it brown and filling the air with a nauseating stench. But since Venezuela's economic crisis began it is here, in this sewage-filled water, that some Venezuelans search for a means of survival, a way to earn a little money and to feed their families.  Every day, groups of Venezuelans sift through the rubbish and excrement that has been dumped into the river in the hope of finding jewellery that may have fallen down somebody's drain and ended up in the sewer. It isn't only in the river that people scavenge. More…