A garbage picker works around the Aura garbage dump as it contaminates the Aura River near the mouth of the Amazon in Ananindeua, a municipality on the outskirts of Belem on March 21.

The Lixao do Aura, or Aura garbage dump, is located in an area designated as an Area of Environmental Protection (APA) and receives nearly 2,000 tonnes of garbage per day from the more than 450,000 homes in greater Belem, according to Brazil's Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The IBGE also ranks Belem as the Brazilian city with more than one million inhabitants that has the lowest percentage of homes with proper sewer connection, at only six percent of the population living with such infrastructure. March 22 is World Water Day. Reuters/Paulo Santos