Experts say many factors contributing to Lake Titicaca’s shrinkage could be linked to climate change.
Alex Flores walks on a dry patch of Lake Titicaca, Latin America’s largest freshwater basin, as it approaches record levels, on Cojata Island, Bolivia, October 26, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Morales/file photo
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Alex Flores walks on a dry patch of Lake Titicaca, Latin America’s largest freshwater basin, as it approaches record levels, on Cojata Island, Bolivia, October 26, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Morales/file photo
The cracked and exposed soils of parts of Lake Titicaca, South America’s largest body of fresh water and the world’s highest navigable lake nestled among the Andes mountains, are an alarming sight for the local farmer Manuel Flores.
His crops are withered, nearby water wells have dried up due to a long drought, and his livestock are struggling. Like many who live on or around the lake, he traveled easily by boat. Now it crosses the dry lake bed.
The lake, once considered a deity by the pre-Columbian people who lived on its shores, is an important ecosystem for wildlife and a water source for millions of people, including in the city of El Alto, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the east.
But its water levels are now at record highs, made worse by the El Nino weather phenomenon that means less rain in the region, worsening a long drought and rare, high temperatures.
Scientists say such extreme weather is increasingly common globally due to climate change, which is also intensifying the effects of El Niño.
“I am 50 years old. Never before has Lake Titicaca been as dry as it is today. This affects us, because there is no more food for our livestock and we cannot travel by boat,” said Flores, a farmer. “Now we have to walk and our crops are gone because it hasn’t rained since last year.”
Drought is approaching critical levels for the region’s agriculture, farmers and experts said. If it does not rain in early December, there will be no planting of potatoes, one of the staple foods of Bolivia’s rural communities and cities.
Around the lake, particularly in the smaller and shallower “Lago Menor”, the waters have retreated from the shore, partly due to lack of rain, high temperatures and the retreat of Andean glaciers, whose water melt normally feeds the lake.
Experts say many of the factors contributing to Lake Titicaca’s shrinkage could be linked to climate change.
“Ninety-five percent of lake water loss is due to evaporation, showing that it is completely or almost completely caused by climate change,” said systems scientist Xavier Lazzaro. aquatics at the IRD.
“GO DOWN CENTIMETER BY CENTIMETER”
According to MapBiomas Agua, which has been monitoring the region’s surface water bodies for two decades, Bolivia as a whole has seen a 39% decline in its natural surface waters, such as rivers and lagoons, between 1985 and 2022.
This decline is accompanied by global temperatures reaching record highs, which has impacted rivers, lakes and glaciers from the United States to Asia.
“There are many factors, many causes,” said Rodney Camargo, head of the local NGO Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN).
“On the one hand, we have the local causes that we know: deforestation, fires, human activity, large dams, which have an effect. On a global level, we have climate change and phenomena like El Niño and La Niña, which cause floods and droughts.”
Back at Lake Titicaca, Fredy Aruquipa, the person responsible for monitoring the lake’s water level, sees it falling daily.
“The water is going down inch by inch,” he said.
