Pollution of Lake Titicaca, Peru
Peru
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last yearProblems
Wastewater
Lake Titicaca – the highest navigable lake in the world and a sacred place to Andean natives – is mainly polluted by wastewater from the surrounding residential areas, which underwent exponential development over the past few years. The lake has over 25 tributaries that pour wastewater from households, factories, mines, and hospitals into the basin. Antibiotics and heavy metals were found in tests carried out by scientists.
Industrial waste
Rivers winding toward the lake pass smaller towns that contribute human and industrial waste, and some gold mining operations in Peru use a smelting process that releases mercury into the water, in sharp contrast to the deep blue of Lake Titicaca, opaque, foul-smelling water trickles through rivers in El Alto. Those rivers run red with blood from slaughterhouses, green with chemicals from factories, and vivid orange from mineral processing. Livestock grazing along the shore also loads the lake with organic waste. This can fuel explosive aquatic plant growth, sucking up oxygen and cutting off sunlight other plants and animals need to survive. A 2011 United Nations report found “alarming” concentrations of cadmium, arsenic, and lead in various parts of the lake.
Tourism impact
Many more than 400,000 tourists who visit Lake Titicaca from Peru each year stop first in Juliaca. This town produces 200 tons of trash daily, much of it winding up in a river that has turned into a conveyor belt of waste heading into the lake. Hypodermic needles, tires, old shoes, and used diapers are scattered among the potato fields that line the giant lake’s shores. An additional 350,000 tourists visit the lake from Bolivia.
Pesticides and Fertilizers from Agriculture
Traditionally, different types of potatoes are grown around Lake Titicaca. The region is even known as the origin of potato farming. Grains such as corn, barley, and quinoa are also counted among the region’s agricultural products, thanks to the microclimate created by the lake which allows these crops to grow despite the altitude’s otherwise adverse conditions. In order to meet increasing food demands, more extensive and more significant areas are being used to cultivate grains, vegetables, and intensive agriculture. The use of yield-enhancing fertilizers has an additional negative impact on the soil and the water cycle.
Declining Water Levels
27 rivers and rainfall feed Lake Titicaca. For many years, the rainy season has been growing shorter; of the original six months, it now rains only three. Here it is already possible to see the devastating consequences of climate change through a drastic water level drop. The amount of water in the river valley’s tributaries is also declining noticeably due to increasing water removal and water needed for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use. The lake’s declining water level and the dry shore areas mean a loss of habitat and spawning and nesting areas for many animals and plants. The concentration of organic and chemical pollution in the water also increases dramatically because of this.
Fishing and Dairy Farming
The communities at Lake Titicaca traditionally live from fishing. Here the indigenous fish species like the Andes Ispi, Karachi, Humanto, and Boga Carps played an important role. Since 1942, increasing numbers of foreign fish species like the Trucha (Trout) have been released into the lake because of their faster growth. This has led to the decline of native species. Additionally, the deteriorating water quality has negatively influenced fish stocks and, beginning in the 1980s, forced some fishermen to abandon their work. Many became ranchers and let their alpacas, sheep, and cow herds graze around the lake. This structural change is the reason for the increasing overgrazing of the barren slopes.
Solutions
Peru and Bolivia sign historic deal to save Lake Titicaca
Author: Goverment of Bolivia and Peru
Bolivia and Peru signed a historic deal on 7 January 2016 in La Paz to clean up the habitat of Lake Titicaca. The paper envisages on the one hand a series of measures aimed to limit pollutants that everyday pour into the basin, on the other hand the lake clean-up. The project is going to cost 500 million dollars and will be completed by 2025. The deal has been signed by the Ministers of the Environment of the two countries: the Bolivian Alexandra Moreira and the Peruvian Manuel Pulgar. Minister Pulgar stated that the two countries are “already taking concrete actions such as investing in water treatment plants to address the main problems the lake is facing.” A year later, Peru’s new president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, pledged to construct 10 treatment plants around the lake, putting the cost at $437 million, “so that the most beautiful lake in the world is the cleanest lake in the world.” But details of how the plants would be funded remain unclear and promises by politicians dating back two decades have so far gone unfulfilled.
Gallery
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Timelines
2021
According to a report by Peru's National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (SENAHMI), published in June 2021, the Titicaca's water level was 0.85 meters below its historical level due to droughts, and they warn that this could have devastating consequences for the biodiversity and for the people who depend on the lake for their livelihoods. Pollution, partly caused by tourism, is also contaminating the lake.
2016
October
In October 2016, authorities said more than 10,000 Titicaca water frogs were found floating on the lake’s surface in a mass die-off. The frogs are believed to be the largest freshwater species of aquatic frog in the world and spend most of their lives in the lake. Listed as “critically endangered” on the Red List of at-risk species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the population of Titicaca water frogs has dropped by about 80 percent over three generations, estimated at about 15 years.
January
In January 2016, the governments of Peru and Bolivia pledged to spend $500 million to clean up the lake. Peru’s president has pitched the idea of building water treatment plants to clean agricultural and mine runoff and untreated sewage out of the water that flows downstream to Titicaca.
2015
In 2015, with the excess of organic waste that reached Lake Titicaca, there was an alga bloom in the smaller lake, reducing the animal population, limiting the entry of sunlight, and affecting oxygenation.
2014
A study sponsored by Peru in 2014 tested several types of fish that swim in Lake Titicaca, forming the bulk of many local residents’ diets. Though fish form a staple in many regional diets, they contain dangerous levels of cadmium, mercury, lead, and other heavy metals.
2011
In 2011, then-presidential candidate Ollanta Humala promised to resolve the contamination and construct water sewage processing plants. He won 79 percent of votes in the Lake Titicaca region but did not follow through.
2000
Since 2000, Lake Titicaca has experienced constantly receding water levels. Between April and November 2009 alone, the water level dropped by 81 cm (32 in), reaching the lowest level since 1949. This drop is caused by shortened rainy seasons and the melting of glaciers feeding the tributaries of the lake.
1980
In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a significant increase in mining activities around the lake, which led to the release of toxic metals and other pollutants into the water. This had a severe impact on the lake's ecosystem, including the loss of fish populations and other aquatic life.
1950
The pollution of Lake Titicaca has been an ongoing issue for several decades, with various factors contributing to the problem. The lake has been facing increasing pollution since the 1950s when industrial activities and agriculture began to intensify in the region.