I'm here again in San Pedro La Laguna - my favourite place for swimming - on Lake Atitlan -- but this week, the lake has filled up with green/brown sludgey stuff. Apparently it's a algae -- the result of years of contamination from chemical fertiliser and raw sewage ending up in the Lake. I'm told that it doesn't have much affect in small amounts, but has grown over the years - and this week all the algae -which normally lives happily at the bottom, has died and floated to the top. 'Experts' have actually been warning this might happen for several years -- especially as it has actually happened before -to Lake Amatitlan about 10 years ago. Why don't we ever learn?? 
Lots of people in the lake communities are trying to 'clean' it - using makeshift sieves or filters made from net curtains or sackcloth - but this only deals with the symptom not the cause, and even if it did work - you'd need a lot more people cleaning - considering the size of the lake! It's really sad to see - as Lake Atitlan is such a beautiful place, but now the water is seriously contaminated, it may take several years or even decades to sort it out -- and that's if the government and local authorities put water treatment works in place and change the local culture of putting rubbish in the lake. It makes me sad!
No comments:
Post a Comment