Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 3 March 2017

Lake worshipped by Incans now littered with trash

FRANKLIN BRICENO been placed on a “criti-
Associated Press cally endangered” list by
LAKE TITICACA, Peru (AP) the International Union for
— Tucked between snow- Conservation of Nature
capped mountains, Lake and just 10,000 remain.
Titicaca was once wor- In the coastal hamlet of
shipped by the Incas, who Coata, 23-year-old Maria
proclaimed its deep blue Avila grew angry as she
waters the birthplace of talked about the lake’s
the sun. contamination. The moth-
These days the shores of er of a 4-year-old living in
South America’s largest an adobe house says she
lake are littered with dead cannot bathe or drink the
frogs, discarded paint water without getting se-
buckets and bags of soggy vere diarrhea or red spots
trash. Less visible threats on her skin.
lurk in the water itself: toxic If she washes a blouse with
levels of lead and mercury. the lake’s water it turns
The steady deterioration of a green color and if she
the prized tourist destina- heats the water to make
tion has caused a rash of mate, a tea-like drink with
health problems among a normally grassy taste, it
the 1.3 million people in becomes salty and bitter.
Peru and Bolivia living near Melinda Quispe walks on the trash strewn shore of Lake Titicaca, as she holds her dog, in her vil- Avila collects rainwater for
Lake Titicaca’s polluted lage Kapi Cruz Grande, in the Puno region of Peru. The governments of Peru and Bolivia signed a household use, but when
pact in January to spend more than $500 million to attack the pollution problem of Lake Titicaca,
banks. though the details were vague. there isn’t rain, she rows a
Untreated sewage wa- (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) boat 10 kilometers (6 miles)
ter drains from two dozen that the most beautiful lake those advised for human ficials limit some fish con- out from the shore and
nearby cities and illegal in the world is the cleanest consumption. sumption, but inhabitants gathers water in barrels.
gold mines high in the An- lake in the world.” Cellular malformations of the lake area said they The water deeper in Lake
des dump up to 15 tons of But details of how the were detected in the fishes’ weren’t informed about Titicaca is cleaner than
mercury a year into a river plants would be funded re- blood, said Mario Monroy, the study or told they could that collected from the
leading to the lake. main unclear and promises lead author of the study be consuming fish harmful banks and can be used to
“If the frogs could talk they by politicians dating back and professor at Jorge to their health. cook, bathe and drink af-
would say, ‘This is killing two decades have so far Tadeo Lozano University in Environment Minister Elsa ter being boiled.
me,’” said Maruja Inquilla, gone unfulfilled. Bogota, Colombia. Monroy Galarza said her agency “My ancestors have lived
a local environmental ac- Many of the more than likened the state of the fish- plans to make recommen- here more than 500 years.
tivist who recently showed 400,000 tourists who visit es’ blood to a thermometer dations to residents based They have never gone
up at the Puno governor’s Lake Titicaca from Peru for measuring the health of on the findings, though through these things,” Avi-
house carrying plastic each year stop first in Ju- Lake Titicaca’s waters. Peru’s Production Minis- la said.Like many living on
bags filled with hundreds of liaca, a town that produc- The blue waves that lure try, which co-financed the the 4,000-meter (13,100-
dead frogs in protest. es 200 tons of trash daily, travelers also contain lead study, told The Associated feet) high plain surround-
Increasing concern about much of it winding up in a at levels above interna- Press in an email that more ing the lake, Avila feels
pollution has prompted a river that has turned into tional standards, the study investigation is required. government leaders have
series of scientific studies a conveyor belt of waste found. Inquilla, the local activ- neglected them.
and promises of official ac- heading into the lake. Hy- Dr. Jane M. Hightower, who ist, hasn’t been waiting In 2011, then-presidential
tion. podermic needles, tires, specializes in internal medi- for more. Donning a wide- candidate Ollanta Humala
The governments of Peru old shoes and used diapers cine at the California Pa- brimmed, rainbow-hued promised to solve the con-
and Bolivia signed a pact are scattered among the cific Medical Center in San hat typical of the indig- tamination and construct
in January 2016 to spend potato fields that line the Francisco and is author of enous communities that water sewage process-
more than $500 million giant lake’s shores. An ad- the book “Diagnosis: Mer- surround the lake, she has ing plants. He won 79 per-
to attack the problem, ditional 350,000 tourists visit cury: Money, Politics & Poi- been visiting villagers to cent of votes in the Lake
though the details were the lake from Bolivia. son,” reviewed the study alert them of the dangers Titicaca region but didn’t
vague. A Peruvian government- and told The Associated lurking in their food and follow through.Kuczynski, a
A year later, Peru’s new sponsored study in 2014 Press that the numbers in- water.The green totora former Wall Street banker
president, Pedro Pablo found mercury, cadmium, dicate the amount of mer- reeds and camouflage- who lived just 40 kilometers
Kuczynski, pledged to con- zinc and copper in four cury consumed by Titicaca colored Titicaca water (25 miles) from the lake as a
struct 10 treatment plants types of fish that form part residents would be “unac- frogs she once spotted in youth, has made access to
around the lake, putting of the local population’s ceptable.” abundance have thinned clean water one of the pri-
the cost at $437 million, “so diet at levels higher than The study suggested of- in numbers. The frogs have orities of his presidency.q