‘I visited one of world’s poorest slums with 850,000 people and unbear | World | News

A travel blogger visited one of the poorest slums in the world where hundreds of thousands.

Drew Binsky has the distinction of visiting every country in the world, and recently posted a YouTube video where he visited one of the poorest slums in the world in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. 

His trip took him to Tondo, which is the largest slum in the city. It houses a reported 850,000 people, many of whom live under a huge bridge running through the city. 

Binsky said: “You can smell the water below, it’s just covered in trash. The city is crazy on so many levels.

“There are 23million people and 40% live in slums, but the rich people are crazy rich. In Tondo over 850,000 people live in cramped homes without access to basic living necessities.

“To get there you have to cross the busiest freeway in Manila without a crossway. It’s super dangerous. The smell is unbearable.”

Binsky got together with some local guides and talked to residents’ about their experiences of living in the desperately poor area. One person said the best thing about Tondo is that people are “there for each other”, but the worst thing was undoubtedly the flooding. 

During typhoon season many people lose their livelihoods and their homes. 

Another local said: “We have a simple life here. When it gets to typhoon season, the slum can get washed out. People have to evacuate. They know it’s dangerous but they don’t have any choice.” 

Binsky added: The bathrooms are a hole in the floor, where the waste goes into the water – the same water they bathe in. There’s dogs everywhere. 

“In the same city half a mile from here it’s crazy to think there are high rise and fancy banks and nightclubs. Here it’s the opposite.”