Andrea’s Dispatches from Guatemala: Day 1
Guatemala Trip Group Photo
November 4th, 2009
All is well here in Guatemala! I mananged to make it through US security points without having any toiletries confiscated and arrived to Guatemala City last night at about 9 o’clock at night. My dad’s cousin, Mario, picked me up from the airport (his mother is Guatemalan and father Costa Rican (my parents are Costa Rican). Who would have thought? Small world). Mario is actually going to pick me up this morning to show me around the city, with another Rotarian who happened to have done the Peace Corps in Colombia (my sister is currently living in Colombia, again, small world). I am staying in a cute little area with a lot of outdoor restaurants (tables on the
sidewalks) and small shops.
As soon as I met Mario, he handed me a ¨Prensa Libre¨, local newspaper, with an article about the water quality of Lake Atitlan.
Basically about 15 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) need to be constructed to handle the sewage from 200,000 residents around the lake. Only 6 currently exist, only 2 of which actually function! (2 are under capacity, 1 is badly designed, and 1 badly located). It is thought that about 95% of black water (sewage) waste drains directly into the Lake; a small percentage of hotels and residents use septic tanks. There is no drainage system around the lake. The lake is currently suffering from excess cyanobacteria growth. Causes are thought to be: runoff from agriculture (which accounts for excess nutrient loading, especially phosphorus), untreated wastewater and or grey water (with soaps, another source of phosphorus) flowing into the lake, Hurricane Stan (2005) which caused landslides of soils with high concentrations of fertilizers to seep into the lake, erosion of lands adjacent to roads, the introduction of exotic fish since 1968 such as carp which feed on certain fish that typically consume organisms that the cyanobacteria use to develop, hence throwing the ecosystem off balance, and lastly, global warming, which has caused the temperature of the lake to rise by 5 degrees Celsius. The problem is not new and has existed for about 50 years, and there have been many warning signs in between, but the cyanobacteria growth has never before been this dramatic. Authorities have contracted a Chinese company, Blue Planet, to clean the lake, and locals have even taken it upon themselves to manually fill buckets to remove the bacteria. Fishermen are afraid to fish because the bacteria is thought to be toxic. Authorities plan on providing bottled water to the public at this time in some localities.
So far some steps taken are: the Minister of Agriculture ordered that no synthetic fertilizers be used in Solola and the Ministry of Communication, Corps of Engineers, and Ministry of Defense will conduct a soil erosion study, caused by the roads, and on the soils in the area to determine their chemical composition. Also an educational campagin, to let the public know that the problem is being worked on, and an environmental alert will be issued. The project to construct
15 WWTPs is thought to cost about US$29 million, and currently only US$10 million has been set aside, which for 8 years now has been earmarked for saving the lake. The lake is a major source of people’s livelihood in the area (fishing and tourism) and is thought to generate about US$200 million annually. (Source: Prensa Libre, 1 de Noviembre, 2009, “Lago de Atitlan esta en coma”, “De la Indiferencia hay que pasar a las acciones”, por Francisco Mauricio Martinez).
All of this just helps reinforce the need for water projects in this area. According to the Ministry of Health, 98% of water sources in Guatemala are contaminated with fecal wate and chemcial residuals (Ramirez, Alberto. ”El 98% del agua esta contaminada.” Prensa Libre).
Results from repeated testing of piepd water from 31 different municipal water systems indicated that between 70% (2003) and 93%
(2002) of municipal water systems were ocntaminated with fecal coliform bacteria! (Braghetta, Anne, P.h.D., P.E. Drawing the Connection between Malnutrition and Lack of Safe Drinking Water in Guatemala).
We’ll begin the installation of water filters at the home of community members (the filters have already been installed in the
schools) tomorrow. We are a group of twelve Rotarians from Reno (just me), New Jersey, Kansas, and Oregon. Today we leave for Panajachel, but for now I am about to take a small tour of the city until the other Rotarians arrive!
tv online…
http://www.tv-online-live.com...