2023-07-29 06:28:02
LA PAZ (AP) — The feet of a 70-year-old man sink into the ground as he passes some abandoned boats where there used to be water from Titicaca. The highest navigable lake in the world is losing water at such a worrying rate that the Bolivian authorities have issued an alert and predict that the situation may reach critical levels due to persistent drought.
“It’s completely dry,” said Jaime Mamani, a community leader in the farming town of Huarina, 70 kilometers west of La Paz, with exasperation.
The National Hydrographic Service of the Bolivian Naval Force declared an alert this week for the situation of the iconic lake, following its surface fell two centimeters below the point at which it is considered a drought warning, that is, to 3,807.8 meters above sea level.
According to their projections, this is only the beginning of a reality that worries the Aymara indigenous communities who depend on the lake for their livelihood and who fear that the drought might permanently affect the flora and fauna of the region.
The Bolivian navy’s hydrology unit warned that water levels might reach historically low levels in the coming months. By December, there is a “high probability” that Lake Titicaca will be even 64 centimeters below the drought alert level, breaking a record low set in 1998 by 33 centimeters.
“In three months the water has decreased by 30 centimeters and, considering that the radiation is much stronger at this time of the year…, we hope it will continue to decrease,” said Carlos Carrasco, a hydraulic engineer from the hydrology service.
The Andean region goes through years of deficit rainfall that feeds the snow-capped mountains, the lake’s main source of water supply. In the last three years, that area has been hit by three La Niña climatic phenomena and El Niño has arrived since March, the effects of which have been aggravated by climate change, explained Lucía Walper, head of the hydrological forecast unit of the National Service. of Meteorology and Hydrology.
Authorities in the Peruvian city of Puno have also issued a warning regarding declining water levels and raised concerns regarding the potential impact on tourism.
“We are reaching a critical point. There will be a significant loss of water”, predicted Juan José Ocola, president of the Binational Authority of Lake Titicaca. The lake serves as the border between Bolivia and Peru.
The vast lake is vital to that region of the Bolivian altiplano, where hundreds of rural Aymara communities have always depended on it for their subsistence as farmers and ranchers along its shores.
Mateo Vargas, a 56-year-old fisherman who has lived on Lake Titicaca for half his life, said he used to catch “a lot” of fish every day. He now considers himself lucky if he can catch six.
His wife Justina Condori shares his anguish. “The fish have disappeared,” said the 58-year-old woman, who believes that if current conditions persist, there will even be famine.
In fact, ranchers who depend on the plants that grow on the banks of Titicaca to feed their animals are already seeing their livelihoods threatened, and the setback is being felt everywhere.
Women who sell fried fish and other lakeside snacks face higher costs for ingredients and those who make a living ferrying people from one side of the lake to the other are altering their routes as their rafts and boats no longer call at their usual docks.
Those economic hardships are causing many residents of the area to migrate to other parts of the country, leaving behind their usual residents, mostly older people, Mamani lamented as she walked on that part of the mainland today, which used to be part of from Titicaca. Titicaca’s waters have always been shallow around the town, so the drought is even more visible there.
“There is damage to the economy of the inhabitants of the region,” he concluded.
Vargas, the fisherman, is haunted by looking beyond the present at what this lowering of the water level might mean in the future.
“It looks like it will continue to decrease, day by day,” he said. “We are worried, because if we continue like this, what will happen to our children?”
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