teem with Pisces and wildlife , it used to be Bolivia ’s secondly - largest lake , but now Lake Poopóhas been reducedto little more than a cold plain . In just a matter of years the body of water consistence that used to support hundred of syndicate living on its edge has been reduced to aroundjust two percentof its original sizing . While the Bolivian officials are putting it down to climate change and the continuing impact of El Niño , others are blaming the governing for mishandle the vital weewee root .
locate on the Bolivian altiplano at an EL of 3,700 meters ( 12,139 feet),in the 1990sit used to cover an area of 2,000 square kilometer ( 772 solid naut mi ) , make it second in size only to the well - make out Lake Titicaca . But due to recapitulate drouth and the diversion of tributaries for mining , the level of the salt water lake has proceed to dribble , until last year when El Niño , which some consider to be the speculative in a century , almost finished it off . Millions of fish are thought to have snuff it , as well as hundreds of birds that used to hold out in the wetland .
The lake in 2009 , teeming with flamingoes , fish , and other wildlife.green_lava / Flickr CC BY - NC - ND 2.0
This is n’t the first time that the lake had dried up – it did so in 1997 – give way some people hope thatit could returnat some point . But others warn that with the melting of the glaciers high in the Andes , and the ramping up of mood change , this scenario is now improbable . When the current drouth lifts and the rainwater return , it is expected to fill up a lilliputian , but it is not thought that it will last . This had led to calls for the government to do something to prove and avail alleviate the position .
So far it ’s estimated that two tierce of the families , some 500 in total , have left the community that used to exist on the lake shore . Made up of fisherman and farmers levy sheep and Lama pacos , there is now trivial left for them to make a living from , forcing the government to provideat least 3,000 peoplewith humanitarian aid just for them to survive .
The lake used to get most of its body of water from the Desaguardero River , which hang from the big Lake Titicaca , and considering Titicaca still has plenty of H2O it seems odd that Poopó is now so arid . The with child material body - up of red silt where the river used to enter the lake gives a speck as to what might also be go on . It is mostly believe that this silt has come from the plurality of mining outfit which take place further up the river and divert it . The silt is thought to be a result of the mining , which has also added toxic chase into the mix .
Despite this , the government still maintains that the incrimination lays on the changing climate , and has request that the European Union furnish the country with $ 140 million ( £ 97.5 million ) to dredge the tributaries such as the Desaguadero , as well as to build water system treatment plant in the rest of the lake watershed . All these schemes , however , are probably too little , too late .
