Rapid urbanization, fueled in large part by immigration from rural areas, is magnifying cities' already severe environmental problems. Conditions are particularly severe in shantytowns where almost half of city residents live, where the greatest growth is taking place, and where raw sewage and solid waste are dumped directly into the environment. More than ninety percent of LAC's urban and industrial wastewater is released to the environment untreated. None of the numerous examples illustrates the impact of resource mismanagement more clearly than Hurricane Mitch. It is the combination of the two that leads to disasters.
Experts attribute seventy percent of the damage to poor land-use decisions.
Environmental degradation in the LAC region directly affects the United States. Some impacts are immediately noticeable, for example, the 1998 fires in Mexico and Central America that fouled the air of the southern United States. Environmental degradation can also lead to human flight. The 1999 report of the International Red Cross concluded that the number of people displaced by environmental degradation outstrips the number displaced by political unrest and war. Environmental degradation contributes significantly to immigration pressures.