Photos: Pollution 2011: Where Children Played This Year
By Cristina Merrill | Dec 16, 2011 01:20 PM EDT
The words "pollution" and "play" shouldn't go together, but these photos show the conditions in which children have been playing this year in various parts of the world.
Several global natural disasters gave way to filthy waters, and with nowhere else to play, children often jumped right into them.
Garbage heaps and algae-filled waters also became places in which kids played and swam.
Increasing pollution rates also gave way to bad conditions this year. New Delhi, for example, is experiencing harmful levels of pollution due to the increasing use of cars, The Associated Press reported.
"The city has lost nearly all of the gains it made in 2004 and 2005," executive director of research at the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment Anumita Roychowdhury told The AP.
Here are photos of children playing in less than ideal conditions.
A little girl swims in flood water in Thailand in September. Flooding in Thailand this year killed more than 600 people, the Global Post reported.
Source: Reuters / Chaiwat Subprasom
A boy swims in the algae-filled coastline of Qingdao, Shandong province in China in July.
Source: Reuters / China Daily
Children in a New Delhi landfill in November.
Source: Reuters / Parivartan Sharma
Indonesians got just 0.41% of the vote.
Source: Reuters / Beawiharta Beawiharta
A Filipino boy plays with a makeshift boat during high tide in Manila in July.
Source: Reuters / Romeo Ranoco
A Pakistani boy from a Karachi slum plays with a helmet he found in November.
Source: Reuters / Akhtar Soomro
