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Tomas von Houtryve
Nine-year-old Leydi Gonzales (left) and sister Sonia, 8, have levels of lead in their blood that are more than three times what’s considered dangerous by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Their three siblings have elevated levels, too.
Green mesh placed over tailings piles near the Champamarca neighborhood is meant to reduce the amount of toxic dust blowing into streets and homes.
Piles of contaminated mine tailings loom over a playground in the Paragsha neighbourhood. Dust laced with lead blows off these piles and others in Cerro de Pasco.
A herder drives alpacas and llamas back towards home in Botadero de Rumiallana, in the hills above Cerro de Pasco. The town is visible beyond the large tailings pile.
A mural painted on a Cerro de Pasco house by Peruvian artist Daniel Cortez Torres, also known as Decertor, alludes to the pollution problems that plague the town.
Clothes are hung out to dry along a fence that separates the Yanacancha neighbourhood of Cerro de Pasco from the edge of the open-pit mine.
Hilario Mallqui Palacio washes clothes in a small stream on the outskirts of Cerro de Pasco. He lives in the centre of town but has no running water there.
Women with mining helmets look on as children participate in an elementary school parade in the Paragsha neighbourhood.
Children in Cerro de Pasco are seldom far from the mine and its waste.
Martin Trinidad Saco, 70, guides his sheep over the highly contaminated bed of a dried-up lagoon near Cerro de Pasco. Trinidad Saco remembers fishing and collecting bird eggs in the lagoon when it still supported animal life.