Move Back
![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_4_]()
This April 25, 2015 photo shows fishermen pushing a boat with a pole on Lake Titicaca in Pata Patani, Bolivia. While only a small portion of Titicacaâs waters are polluted, the affected areas are along shores where more than a half-million Aymara people live, according to lake authority president Alredo Mamani. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![APTOPIX_Bolivia_Titic_Garc]()
This June 20, 2015 photo shows a woman riding her bike in the morning fog in Bahia de Cohana, Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca. More than half of the people living along the shores lack plumbing, and existing local water-treatment plants are badly overtaxed, according to the lake authority. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_8_]()
This June 20, 2015 photo shows trash strewn along the banks of the polluted Katari River, which empties into Lake Titicaca, as a volunteer clean-up crew works in the Bahia de Cohana, Bolivia. To date, the only true remediation has been sporadic algae cleanups, authority president Alfredo Mamani said. Its like cleaning a pus-oozing wound without attacking the cause. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc]()
This April 25, 2015 photo shows dead frogs floating on the surface of Lake Titicaca in Pata Patani, Bolivia. As human and industrial waste from nearby cities increasingly contaminate the famed lake that straddles the border between Bolivian and Peru, the native Aymara people who rely on it for food and income say action must be taken before their livelihoods, like the frogs, die off. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_2_]()
This June 20, 2015 photo shows volunteers carrying bags of plastic bottles they collected from the Katari River that feeds into Lake Titicaca in Bahia de Cohana, Bolivia. Most pollution on the Bolivian side, including such toxic heavy metals as lead and arsenic, originates in El Alto, a fast-growing city near La Paz that sits above the lake. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_1_]()
This April 25, 2105 photo shows a structure used for fishing on Lake Titicaca, South Americas largest body of fresh water, in Pata Patani, Bolivia. Near-shore fishing was good until about 2000, when locals began to notice that the crystal azure waters periodically would turn a murky green, according to local villagers. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_5_]()
This April 25, 2015 photo shows dead frogs floating on the surface of Lake Titicaca in Pata Patani, Bolivia. Lake Authority President Alfredo Mamani blames the frog kill on untreated sewage and other waste that distill into a hydrogen-sulfite cocktail that chokes the life out of near-shore aquatic habitats. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_7_]()
This June 20, 2015 photo shows Aymara women sitting together before they worked to clean up the polluted the Katari River, which empties into Lake Titicaca, in Bahia de Cohana, Bolivia. Bolivia and Peru created the Titicaca Lake authority to manage the body of water but have given it few resources to do so, authority president Alfredo Mamani said. While Mamani declined to disclose the authoritys budget, he said it has 30 employees and no money for equipment or projects. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_3_]()
This June 20, 2015 photo shows Aymaran men collecting plastic bottles from the polluted Katari River, which empties into Lake Titicaca in Bahia de Cohana, Bolivia. A study by the binational Lake Titicaca Authority found elevated levels of iron, lead, arsenic and barium in the water, the worst at the mouth of the Katari, which flows from El Alto. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)![Bolivia_Titicaca_Cont_Garc_6_]()
This April 25, 2015 photo shows a fisherman lifting a dead frog from the surface of Lake Titicaca in Pata Patani, Bolivia. Long before the frog deaths in April, the lake authority asked Peru and Bolivia for permanent monitoring efforts and laboratories to measure contaminants entering the lake. Trout farms and nearby agriculture also have suffered. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)The not-so-pristine waters of Lake Titicaca
As human and industrial waste from nearby cities increasingly contaminate the famed lake that straddles the border between Bolivian and Peru, the native Aymara people who rely on it for food and income say action must be taken.
Move Forward
- The not-so-pristine waters of Lake Titicaca
