Drought and pollution are increasingly taking their toll on Lake Titicaca, shared by Bolivia and Peru. In the Bolivian town of Cohana, the inhabitants experience difficulties for the provision of water and food after the disappearance of a river that was a tributary of Titicaca. Despite the complex outlook, a group of women volunteers help clean up, hoping to help preserve the lake, around which nearly two million people live.
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In Bolivia, the Aymara volunteers Mujeres Unidas en Defensa del Agua are crying out for help because the drought has endangered the supply of food and water. They have also organized to clean up the garbage that reaches Lake Titicaca from the nearby municipalities.
One of the consequences of climate change and drought is the disappearance of the river that passed in front of the Bolivian town of Cohana and was a tributary of Titicaca.
Where two years ago there was a river, now there is a desert with dozens of abandoned boats on land.
“Here used to be a beautiful river, there were even fish, but now it is like that, and a lot of pollution is affecting it. There is no more food for cattle, neither to drink water, nor to wash, there is no way to live here (…) Drought, totally. This year there is no production, neither for cattle, nor for humans,” Teresa Mendoza, vice president of that organization and resident of Cohana, told France 24.
Near the place, at the Guaqui Naval Base, the Navy has confirmed that the decrease in the waters of Titicaca is at a level of drought due to the lack of significant rainfall.
Lake decline could hit an all-time high this year
Carlos Carrasco, an engineer from the Naval Hydrology Service, indicated that this month the water level dropped to 3,807.68 meters above sea level (masl). The data is 42 centimeters below that registered last April and more than one meter from that reported in the same month of 2022 (3,808.98 masl).
If the decrease continues, by the end of the year the minimum historical record reported in 1988, of 3,807.49 meters above sea level, will be exceeded by more than 41 centimeters, according to projections from the naval institution.
“What is reflected is a lowering level of the lake. Quite less than what happened last year. That leads us to think that this year we could have problems because the normal behavior of the water is for it to continue to drop until December,” said Carlos Carrasco, a hydraulic engineer from the naval institution.
According to Carrasco, the deficit and the variations in rainfall are due to the fact that the region endured three consecutive “La Niña” phenomena and then an “El Niño” phenomenon.
The problem is aggravated in that area, with contamination by garbage that flows into Lake Titicaca from nearby municipalities.
“We don’t have water”
Rosa Jalja, a member of the United Women in Defense of Water, affirms that the contamination problem comes from El Alto because it does not have an adequate garbage treatment plant for the size of its population, of more than one million inhabitants, and that They make it the second largest city in Bolivia, after Santa Cruz, in the east of the country.
In addition, he adds that the other problem to be solved is the provision of drinking water for the lake area.
“We don’t have water. How are we going to do. The engineers have explained to us that they can make air holes. I don’t know which mechanism to opt for, because in this entire sector there is no water”, says Jalja.
Despite not being able to fight the drought, the volunteers try to contribute with the cleanup to the preservation of the lake that gives life to almost two million people in Bolivia and Peru.
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