He Titicaca It is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is located at about 3,800 meters above sea level and has a total area of more than 8,500 square kilometers.. Located between Bolivia and Peru, it serves as a natural border between both countries. However, the alarms have gone off in this part of the planet, since the water level in Lake Titicaca is about six centimeters below its historical minimum -registered in 1996- due to the intense drought that affects Bolivia and other surrounding countries.
The region is going through a complicated situation, due to the confluence of climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, characterized by the lack of rain. The drought and rising temperatures have also accelerated the melting of glaciers in the Andes mountain range, a scenario that, according to experts, could also have consequences on the country’s food and hydroelectric security.
The director of the National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology (Semanhi) of Bolivia, Hugo Mamani, told the media that the water level of Titicaca continues to drop: at the beginning of October, the water level reached the historical minimum recorded in 1996. .
In 1996, the millimeter ruler installed in Lake Titicaca marked 2.99 meters high, while currently it marks 2.93 meters.
“It is six centimeters and it is going down little by little, it is evaporating, we have loss of water due to evaporation and we have a greater amount of solar radiation,” said the director of the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (Semanhi) of Bolivia.
A recent study that analyzed satellite images between 1992 and 2020 showed that Lake Titicaca loses around 120 million metric tons of water each yearmainly due to lack of precipitation and runoff.
More than three million people live around this lake and depend on its waters for fishing or farming, in addition to tourism that visits this enclave of great natural beauty.
Reforestation campaigns
For the moment and to stop the advance of this problem, it is planned carry out reforestation campaigns next to the lake so that the humidity of the place is maintained, which would help stop the evaporation of water due to solar radiation.
However, if this works, the lake’s recovery will be slow. The flow is expected to increase “little by little” as rainfall occurs, and the water level is expected to return to normal in 2025.
The Government of Bolivia has reported that there are around 200,871 families that have been affected by the drought and that the highland region of Oruro was declared a disaster, while the regions of La Paz, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca are in “emergency.” At the same time, 144 municipalities of the more than 330 that Bolivia has have declared themselves in a state of disaster.
The situation also generates concern in the economic sphere, even in the short term, due to the decrease in tourists that this region suffers, one of the best known in the country and which annually attracts numerous visitors, both national and foreign.
Furthermore, communities that make a living from fishing observe with concern how the drop in water level adds to the progressive water pollution and overfishing.
CNN has reported that agriculture is also suffering from the drought. The vast majority of quinoa and potato crops, local staples, have been affected, as has oats used to feed livestock.
The country’s meteorological authorities remind that the current El Niño conditions could last at least until February 2024.
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Contact of the Environment section: crisisclimatica@prensaiberica.es