English version Todos por el Lago, October 20th 2009

Todos por el Lago

20th October 2009

Introduction

The important environmental changes in Lake Atitlan have a long history. However, the recent growth of cianobacteria in October 2009 is the lake´s response to:

1. the accumulated effect of hurricanes Mitch and Stan.

2. The increased dumping of drainwater into the lake

3. The uncontrolled civil works, urbanizations and construction of new roads which have moved large tracts of earth in the last few years

4. The increase of the excessive use of agrichemical fertilisers

With respect to the dumping of untreated water into the lake, after four years of paralysis by the authorities, we have had, since March, the proposal for the rehabilitation of the wter treatment plant in Panajachel. This proposal had projected a construction time of 3 or 4 months. 6 months have now passed and the only iniative that has been visible in Panajachel was that the neighbourhood decided to construct a wetlands which would receive the waste water that is at the moment, flowing into the river and subsequently, the lake. However, the local authorities did not allow the ´channeling of these waters through the proposed artificial wetlands that could have helped to reduce some of the contamination of the lake.

All around the lake, with the exception of the wáter treatment plants in Sololá, every single other settlement is unloading their dirty water directly into the lake.

The New Growth

This new outbreak of cyanobacterias covers the whole lake. This has been checked by boats which have taken samples of the water from Pana to Cerro de Oro y from San Marcos to San Antonio. Following this, divers have experienced themselves the existence of cyanobacterias in different parts of lake and up to 25meter down in the water.

Dr. Margaret Dix, limnologist and investigator from the University of Guatemala (UVG) identified the samples on Thursday 16 of October and wrote “the majority of hte simples is cianobacteria and probable lyngbia … I bring bad news”. To this Dr. Eliska Rejmankova, profesor in Environmental Studies at the University of California, Davis, responded “this is very bad news but it’s not without hope. The prevention of allowing phosphorous P to enter the lake is absolutely critical (although even if we stop totally phosphorous P entering the lake today, we will still probably see the growth of cyanobacteria in the future due to the internal weight of P)

Stance to Take

We are insisting before the national authorities (the President, Vice President and Minister of the Environment) that they act decisively to control the entry of phosphorous (P) with the following urgent actions:

A. Give priority to this situation and declare a national emergency to put into effect the water treatment plants so that they work efficiently in every single human settlement in the lake basin within the next 5 years. To supplement this, a local body needs to be established, such as a Ministerial Subcommittee on Potable Water for the Inhabitants of the Lake Basin to ensure the rapid installation and implementation of these plants.

B. Give priority to the control of erosion generated by civil works (especially roadworks and urbanisations). These types of projects must have to have an environmental impact evaluation done with stringents restrictions that can be implemented under the risk of detaining the project if it is seen as being dangerous and unnecessary.

C. That MAGA and other governmental institutions make it a priority and make an effort to educate the agricultural sector on the appropriate and sustainable use of agrichemicals and in the usage of organic agricultural technologies that would be appropriate to control the dumping of nitrogen and phosphorous in the lake.

D. Methodically recuperate the river ecosystems of the basin (streams, rivers and coastal run-offs of the lake) to stablise ecological processes that will purify the water from contaminations before they become deposited in the body of water.

E. Ensure the treatment of solid waste and environmental education in all of the lake basin so that the non-biodegradable waste leaves the basin once it has stopped being useful.

F. Revise the laws and legislation regarding the maintenance of lake Atitlan to resolve with haste governmental problems and environmental justice.

Please, we beg you, forward this message to your friends. Open an account with Twitter and follow the process with:

lakeatitlan http://twitter.com/todosporellago



http://www.your-story.org/lake-atitlan-in-guatemala-is-%E2%80%9Cthreatened-lake-of-the-year-2009%E2%80%9D-5930/





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