Lake Poopó in Bolivia dries up and causes ecological disaster

This time, there doesn’t seem to be any turning back: the immense Poopó lake, the second in Bolivia, dries up, disappears. Of the 2,337 square kilometers it owned 10 years ago, only three wetlands remain, totaling 1 square kilometer and 30 centimeters in depth, in round numbers.

This saltwater lake in the Bolivian Altiplano, at an altitude of 3,700 metersIt is located in a mining area – no less data – in the department of Oruro.

Lake Poopó is an elongated lake that receives its flow from the Desaguadero River, which in turn receives its waters from Lake Titicaca, the largest in Bolivia. It has no outlet to the sea, nor a major drain and not even more than an average depth of 3 meters, but Even in times of drought, it had 1,000 square kilometers of guaranteed water surface.

Occasionally, alarm signals would come in due to its low flow. One of the most disturbing moments was lived in 2015, when the Poopó evaporated so much that everyone feared it would disappear, as it does with the Aral Sea, in the desert of Karakalpakistan (Uzbekistan), which now only accounts for 10% of the 68,000 km2 it measured just seventy years ago.

Why is the Poopó drying out?

Unlike the previous ones, this ecological disaster seems terminal because it hurts the heart of an entire ecosystem.

One of the first causes pointed out by specialists is the decrease in water flow caused by the melting of the Andean glaciers. In addition to the fact that it rains less in the region, climate change is evaporating the waters of Lake Poopó more than expected..

However, there is also an overexploitation of the lake’s water resources, the flow of which is diverted to mining and agriculture, the first more inexcusable than the second.

These two reasons, added to the excess of urbanization, are precisely the three reasons that specialists evoke in the case of the virtual extinction of the Aral Sea. while they decide when to put their signature on the death certificate.

For many years, The Bolivian authorities have pointed the finger at the El Niño phenomenon and the global warming of countries industrialized as the main cause of the drought in Poopó.

However, Oruro is a mining department and the excessive or abusive use of the lake’s water resources by the San José mining company has led them to where they are: the lake was disappearing in plain sight and, in addition, it s ‘is contaminated with heavy metals.

In the 1990s, there was a plan to restore the historic flow of the Desaguadero River, but the benefits were not visible in the Poopó basin.

Six years ago, the Bolivian government and the department of Oruro announced the Poopó Basin Master Plan for the restoration of Lake Poopó. It has invested 8 million Bolivians in the purchase of machines to prevent water overflows due to sedimentation and to dredge the Desaguadero river.

However, they know that it is a long-term job that will require 111 million euros that they will seek with the help of the European Union.

What is lost when the Poopó dries up

The entire Lake Poopó basin was declared in 2002 as an ecosystem of international importance where water is the main factor controlling the environment, as well as vegetation and wildlife.

In 2002, Lake Poopó was designated a conservation site under the Ramsar Convention. But 20 years later some mammal species have already left the area. Also several birds, like three species of flamingos which were in danger of extinction.

The whole salt basin was a resting place for migrating birds flying south and now they were forced to change their route.

Numerous reptiles and amphibians they found themselves without habitat or food with the obvious transformation of the lake into the desert. But the worst was taken by the thousands of fish which died because they could not migrate, as well as other animals which died on the spot.

In total, it is believed that some 200 species living beings, among fish, mammals, reptiles, birds and even plants have disappeared from this Andean geography due to evaporation.

The disaster also has a human cost in this region 220 kilometers south of La Paz. The loss of the lake greatly affects the life of 350 families which, on the arid Andean plateau, survive mainly from lake fishing. Given the scarcity of resources, they must leave to survive.

mm / ds