Toxic haze blankets Cocle beach communities

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Economic disaster for tourism and real estate in the area

Smoke from burning garbage blankets Cocle communities
photos and quotations anonymous

The Panama News, like other news media in Panama, has been receiving increasingly desperate pleas from people who live in, do business at or visit the beach communities near the old Rio Hato airstrip. The city of Anton and a number of other communities dump their garbage in the area, and notwithstanding environmental laws to the contrary, set it on fire. There have been promises of solutions, some of them controversial in their own right, but it seems that no immediate relief is at hand and a lot of the affected people believe that their complaints are falling on deaf ears.

Some of the things that people have been saying:

"The burning of plastic and trash is so bad we cannot breathe. Many guests left the resort. Two real estate agents brought clients to Playa Blanca and the clients told them to turn around: they would not live in a place like this."
"Huge truckloads of trash are hauled in from outside this area --- we watch them come from the highway every day, not the resorts!"
"The burning is so bad, around the clock, that you have to put headlights on to drive in Playa Blanca and the road coming into it. Security guards are wearing masks."
"The burning of the trash creates health issues for local residents as well as visiting tourists. I just wish a solution could be found to improve the lives of everyone living in this otherwise beautiful part of Panama."
"The trash collectors pour gasoline on the trash, thus the horrific smell of gas and plastic burning. Are they just ignorant? No, they just don't care about health issues or the smoke."

Also in this section:
Toxic haze blankets Cocle beach communities
Charles Augustus Robinson
Scenes from the Anton Fair
Arroz con Bacalao (Panamanian curried codfish rice)
Andean music at the Boquete Fair
Panama City Carnival hangs in limbo
José Ponce's Panama City scenes
Taiwan Agro-Ecological Fair, January 29-30
When scorpions are a problem
Crime concerns in the Coronado area
New Year's in Panama Oeste

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