Word: lake
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sludge has huge implications for the area and Guatemala. The towns around Atitlan have become reliant on tourism. Scores of restaurants and hotels have opened. Generations of boatmen made a living by shuttling visitors across the lake. And armies of three-wheeled taxis, known as tuk-tuks, were imported from Asia to help move tourists around. Business is down significantly this year. Hotels say they have about half as many guests as usual. Tuktuk drivers report they barely make enough to pay for gas. Restaurant owners are considering giving up. The global recession may be a major factor...
Scientists first detected the cyanobacteria that now infests Atitlan in the 1970s. But the genesis of the problem dates to the late 1950s when the Guatemalan government introduced non-native black bass into the lake's waters believing that hotels and restaurants could lure more tourists if they could offer freshly caught lake fish on their menus. Over the years, however, the bass ate through nearly the entire food chain, including the the young of the rare Pato Poc duck. Their consumption disrupted the ecosystem and destroyed the organisms that would have kept the bacteria...
...thrive. That would be phosphorous, which is abundant among the hills and three towering volcanoes around Atitlan. The situation is aggravated by government distribution of chemical fertilizer containing extra phosphorous to poor farmers who liberally apply it to their fields. Widespread deforestation allows the soil to leach into the lake during Guatemala's six-month-long rainy season. (See more about Guatemala...
Even indigenous Mayans' unknowingly feed the bacteria by washing their clothes on lakeshore rocks with soap that contains phosphorous. An overabundance of phosphorous coupled with three weeks of unusually high temperatures - which the government blames on global warming - is a possible reason why the lake is blooming this year...
...think everyone is beginning to realize that we all had a part in the problem," says Monica Berger, executive director of Association Atit Ala, a community development group pushing for a government cleanup of the lake. "It's easy to ignore the problem until it starts to hurt tourism and the lake's image...