Bolivia’s lake Poopo dries up and scientists fear refill unlikely
Reuters | La Paz
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bolivia’s Lake Poopo was once a fountain of life for local inhabitants, who fished from its teeming waters and farmed along its banks. Now it is a desert. Scientists say the one-time lake, which sprawls across Bolivia’s sun-drenched, high-altitude altiplano, has fallen victim to decades of water diversion for regional irrigation needs.
And a warmer, drier climate has made its recovery increasingly unlikely. “It’s like a perfect storm,” says Jorge Molina, a researcher with the Universidad Mayor de San Andres. “Every year that passes the situation gets worse.”
The lake, Bolivia’s second-largest, is very shallow and has traditionally ebbed and flowed, according to both scientists and the lake’s long-time Aymara inhabitants.
Valerio Rojas, who once made a living from fishing the lake, says village elders tell of the lake recharging every 50 years. But looking out across the parched, white-rimmed salt flat that remains, he has his doubts.
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