The Fort Worth Press - High in the Andes, Lake Titicaca's water levels fall to historic lows

USD -
AED 3.67301
AFN 67.735624
ALL 93.676927
AMD 389.366092
ANG 1.79184
AOA 912.999767
ARS 1004.2644
AUD 1.537716
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.698816
BAM 1.866649
BBD 2.007368
BDT 118.805833
BGN 1.86519
BHD 0.376881
BIF 2936.769267
BMD 1
BND 1.340014
BOB 6.908201
BRL 5.788556
BSD 0.994226
BTN 84.384759
BWP 13.582568
BYN 3.25367
BYR 19600
BZD 2.004028
CAD 1.39721
CDF 2871.000251
CHF 0.89023
CLF 0.035245
CLP 972.511859
CNY 7.247004
CNH 7.247775
COP 4389.75
CRC 506.418516
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 105.825615
CZK 24.144979
DJF 177.047741
DKK 7.11428
DOP 59.918874
DZD 133.978042
EGP 49.606897
ERN 15
ETB 121.711477
EUR 0.953875
FJD 2.273298
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.79573
GEL 2.739828
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.795384
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000264
GNF 8569.792412
GTQ 7.717261
GYD 209.15591
HKD 7.78065
HNL 25.124314
HRK 7.133259
HTG 130.508232
HUF 391.270342
IDR 15867.7
ILS 3.67335
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.28615
IQD 1302.422357
IRR 42074.999919
ISK 138.219991
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.38702
JOD 0.709297
JPY 154.504005
KES 129.249442
KGS 86.789401
KHR 4002.863278
KMF 472.497487
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1402.629477
KWD 0.30781
KYD 0.828545
KZT 496.420868
LAK 21838.433199
LBP 89031.629985
LKR 289.365682
LRD 180.450118
LSL 17.940997
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.855212
MAD 10.057392
MDL 18.13427
MGA 4640.464237
MKD 58.714344
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 7.971348
MRU 39.559055
MUR 46.829705
MVR 15.459824
MWK 1723.996411
MXN 20.36164
MYR 4.452002
MZN 63.909817
NAD 17.940997
NGN 1682.389973
NIO 36.583154
NOK 11.06721
NPR 134.268671
NZD 1.71082
OMR 0.385003
PAB 0.99976
PEN 3.769947
PGK 4.002863
PHP 59.019016
PKR 276.089812
PLN 4.12535
PYG 7761.46754
QAR 3.646048
RON 4.747299
RSD 111.608999
RUB 104.015417
RWF 1357.193987
SAR 3.754629
SBD 8.383555
SCR 15.037077
SDG 601.499594
SEK 10.987405
SGD 1.34732
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.729727
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 568.169888
SRD 35.494016
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.699677
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 17.934793
THB 34.603018
TJS 10.647152
TMT 3.5
TND 3.17616
TOP 2.342103
TRY 34.590225
TTD 6.752501
TWD 32.470987
TZS 2649.999926
UAH 41.131388
UGX 3694.035222
UYU 42.516436
UZS 12754.82935
VES 47.132583
VND 25420
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 626.062515
XAG 0.03248
XAU 0.000372
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.756295
XOF 626.062515
XPF 113.823776
YER 249.925
ZAR 18.067798
ZMK 9001.200923
ZMW 27.464829
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    60.19

    0%

  • RELX

    -0.1200

    46.63

    -0.26%

  • CMSC

    0.0878

    24.76

    +0.35%

  • RIO

    0.8550

    63.205

    +1.35%

  • SCS

    0.3900

    13.66

    +2.86%

  • GSK

    0.2000

    34.16

    +0.59%

  • BTI

    0.1050

    37.485

    +0.28%

  • NGG

    0.2200

    63.33

    +0.35%

  • BP

    -0.3200

    29.4

    -1.09%

  • CMSD

    0.1630

    24.623

    +0.66%

  • RYCEF

    0.0000

    6.8

    0%

  • BCC

    9.8750

    153.655

    +6.43%

  • AZN

    0.8000

    66.43

    +1.2%

  • BCE

    0.2050

    26.975

    +0.76%

  • VOD

    0.1800

    8.91

    +2.02%

  • JRI

    0.1620

    13.372

    +1.21%

High in the Andes, Lake Titicaca's water levels fall to historic lows
High in the Andes, Lake Titicaca's water levels fall to historic lows / Photo: © AFP

High in the Andes, Lake Titicaca's water levels fall to historic lows

Pedro de la Cruz stands beside his stranded boat and supplicates his God, lifting his arms and praying anxiously for rain to replenish Lake Titicaca, the massive body of water at a breath-sapping altitude in the Andes on the border between Bolivia and Peru.

Text size:

"Dear God, make more rain come," the 74-year-old says, invoking Pachamama, Mother Earth for Indigenous people of the region. "Help us, please, we are parched here.... Make the rain showers come... Father in heaven, have pity."

De la Cruz, a former state employee, spoke in Aymara, his native language, as he surveyed what was once the shore of Lake Titicaca, some 45 miles (77 kilometers) west of the capital La Paz.

The waters of Lake Titicaca are within 10 inches (25 centimeters) of their all-time low, a record set in 1996, the chief forecaster for Bolivia's weather service (Senhami), Lucia Walper, tells AFP.

Along what was once the 700-mile shoreline of the lake, one now sees boats stranded on dry land and orphan docks stretched over nonexistent water.

Low levels mean that fish that ordinarily spawn near shore are now unable to, and that leads Edwin Katari, a 43-year-old fisherman, to mull a question.

"So where are the fish going to spawn?" Katari asks.

- Dark forecast –

Bolivia's Senhami has measured water levels of the lake since 1974.

At its highest point in 1986, water levels reached 12 feet higher than they are today, topping out at 12,504.2 feet (3,811 meters) above sea level. But in 1996, they had fallen to 12,491.4 feet above sea level.

Walper says falling water levels are "the result of climate change" and the outlook is not good.

"It is very probable that they keep falling until they hit even lower levels," she says.

A satellite survey still has not been made to see how much Lake Titicaca, which once had a surface area of 3,200 square miles (8,300 square kilometers), has shrunk.

It is the highest of the world's large lakes and is one of the largest in South America, after Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo (which is actually connected to the Caribbean Sea) and Brazil's Lagoa dos Patos, a coastal lagoon.

- La Nina and El Nino –

The level of Lake Titicaca "has been progressively decreasing due to many meteorological, hydrological and climatic factors," explains Walper, who emphasizes that "there is less rainfall."

"Over the years, each phenomenon, whether El Nino and/or La Nina, has been presenting a distortion in its parameters and factors," she points out, explaining the characteristics of these events -- associated with rains or droughts -- over time.

The rainfall and the inflow to the lake from Peruvian rivers "were not sufficient to generate the normal rises in times of rain," she says.

El Nino is a natural climatic event, generally associated with increased temperatures, drought in some parts of the world, and heavy rains in others. La Nina, on the other hand, causes the opposite effects, particularly a drop in temperatures.

Other stresses impact the lake. It is heavily polluted by waste from the city of El Alto, a metropolis of one million people in this landlocked country. Additionally, indiscriminate fishing has decimated species.

- Despair sets in –

Because the decline in water levels is linked to climate change, the solution "is a global issue," Walper adds.

The recent summit in Brazil of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) reaffirmed the call for industrialized countries to fulfill their promises of economic resources to finance actions against climate change.

But in the villages around Lake Titicaca, despair has set in that water levels will never return to normal in the world's highest navigable sea.

"If there is no water, if there is no rain, we will not be able to live," frets De la Cruz.

J.P.Cortez--TFWP