Environmental experts say another growing problem is the inability of urban centers, especially San Salvador, to dispose of garbage in an environmentally sound way. At the main dump, near the suburb of Nejapa, the garbage is piled in huge mounds, where poor people fight with each other and clouds of vultures over the right to scavenge goods. Thee garbage that is collected I thrown on porous, volcanic soil, where it decomposes and filters into the water table. Uncollected garbage is dumped directly into streams and rivers, further fouling them, or left to rot in piles, also posing a health hazard. Reforestation is difficult, with wood so scarce and valuable.
Environmental workers say trees are stolen, or cut as soon as they are big enough to burn.
In recognition of the growing problem, the government recently created the Ministry of the Environment to prepare legislation on emission control standards, rational land use and control of water use and pollution. We are looking at years, maybe a generation, before things even begin to turn around, and by then it may be too late. Despite the fanfare with which the ministry was announced, it has almost no budget, little staff and no institutional framework within which to work. With a vastly reduced aid budget, the United States is assisting ecological protection efforts. One-third of the population lives in rural poverty, so we can't say don't develop.