These people have moved to a high profile location in order to make their situation visible. San Salvador sprawls up the flanks of the eponymous volcano and fills narrow valleys between mountains. Ravines that drain these steep slopes are now urban waterways and open sewers. Urban drainage is impeded by accumulations of solid waste and rubbish. This situation is exacerbated by the presence of earthquake debris and constrictions caused by landslides or the collapse of culverts.
Flooding can be the result.
Low income, self built housing encroaches into many spaces of opportunity in San Salvador's urban fabric. The poorest urban residents actually live in the ravines and narrow urban flood plains. However, such re-housing needs are added to those of approximately 1.5 million people displaced by the earthquakes. The poor live on the sloping sides of the ravines in this photo. But a court found that this ordinance could not be used retroactively.