Photo: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Dennis Lynch

Journey  |  Andrea Julian and Dennis Lynch, Mar-Apr 2010  

Disaster is nothing new to Lake Atitlan.  The lake itself was born from one of the greatest volcanic eruptions Earth has ever seen.  Its caldera is a stunning 21 miles wide, and its depth is at least 1,000 feet.  Underwater archeologists have recently discovered the ruins of an ancient city, 150 feet below the surface of the lake.   

The city was most likely above water at some point over 1000 years ago when a volcanic eruption blocked the exit of what was a river to the ocean. Now Lake Atitlan has only a waste laden river flowing in and no surface outlets flowing out. It is a bowl catching everything that runs into it and holding it year after year, accumulating waste and nutrients. The lakes rising waters have claimed more than one home even in recent years. 

You can see the remains of a house half submerged in the lake during a boat ride around the Toliman volcano. Then there was the civil war, the long and bloody war that claimed the lives of thousands of Mayans.  Residents of Santiago still hold the collective memory of the day a helicopter dropped in at the local market, and emptied round after round of machine gun fire on the defenseless people.  So it is no wonder why the Mayans are so blasé about the recent algae bloom that has struck their lake. 

In October 2009, a bloom of cyanobacteria, a type of blue green algae, began and quickly covered 35% of the lake’s surface.  In the center of the lake, at the peak of the bloom, the algae mat was measured to be an astonishing 100 feet deep. Atitlan was named one of the most threatened lakes in the world in 2008. Scientists identified the bloom as cyanobacteria Lyngbya, a strain of blue-green algae which has had little testing and is not fully understood by the scientific community. 

They then ran tests, and it was determined that it was highly toxic in some places during the peak bloom. One thing that is known is that this form of cyanobacteria can vary greatly in its toxicity over short periods of time. One week it can be relatively safe for wild life to drink, the next deadly.  The government issued a warning via the La Prensa Libre, the national paper, that people should refrain from contact with lake water containing the cyanobacteria.  Traditional filtering methods are of little use in removing it and effective methods require expensive systems and trained technicians.  Even boiling the water is out, since boiling it actually releases more toxins into the water. 

This should have been a devastating blow to the Mayans, but with their distrust of outsiders and modern science, they just regarded the bloom as part of nature and not harmful.  Not only do they wash their clothes in the water, they bathe in it, drink its water (straight from the tap), and use it as irrigation for their crops when it is not raining. 

Not one town on Lake Atitlan has a sewage treatment facility, and not one adds even a drop of chlorine to the water. Another pernicious aspect of cyanobacteria Lyngbya is that chlorine breaks it down into it’s toxic elements. You can’t boil it and you can’t use chlorine to purify it.  Still, much of the indigenous community seemed relatively calm, but not the large international community that calls Lake Atitlan home.

Lake Atitlan has attracted a large foreign population.  Panajachel has been a favorite destination for ex-pats since the 1970's.  Now internationals form a part of the population in almost every lake side town.  San Pedro is especially a favorite among foreigners.  Foreigners have built homes and businesses. 

Some live here part of the year, while others live here year round.  It is not uncommon to meet foreigners who have lived here for over 20 years.  The appeal of the lake, its laid back culture, magnificent beauty, and relative freedom from government and law enforcement, has been attracting a motley crue of renegades from all over the world.

I can still remember the first time I saw Lake Atitlan, glittering under the noonday sun as we drove our rambling Chevy van 20, dubbed the Gladiator, down the incredibly twisty road from Santa Clara to San Pedro la Laguna, our destination.  Its waters were a myriad of blues.  The hills around it, bright green.  I fell in love and that was it. Three months later we were still there.  I was working at a local restaurant on the dock, D'Noz, and every day I would watch the clouds roll in, bringing the daily monsoon like rain.  I could stare at that lake for hours, its beauty was always fresh and new. It is no wonder why the lake was sacred to the ancient Mayans.

Living in San Pedro, I witnessed much of the Mayan culture, and after years, began to have a glimpse of what life was like through their eyes.  Their culture is so different from ours, in large part due to their sense of time.  When you ask a Mayan when their tienda, or store, will be open, they will tell you, “Mas tarde”, which means later.  This could mean, in an hour, or in a week.  It makes no difference to them, it will open eventually.  However, to a westerner, it is frustrating. “Well, when?” we ask impatiently.  “Mas tarde” they will say with a smile.

The Mayans view of time is cylindrical.  Everything is a cycle, and when a disaster strikes, they know that it will one day end, and good times will come again.  The war ended, and life resumed its unhurried pace.  The tourists came, and many Mayans made money by selling land and opening businesses, although not all Mayans have benefited from the tourism.  The Mayans today living on the lake have ancestral roots deep in its earth. 

They are not going anywhere, they have always been there and always will be.  The foreigners, however, have had a shorter history with the lake.  They have known it as a quiet haven in the 14 years since the “civil war” ended. Lake Atitlan is an incredibly beautiful place that called them away from their homelands to start a new life on its shores. 

For some, this is their first real taste of disaster on the lake.  Hurricane Stan, although it caused incredible loss of life for the Mayans, did not affect the foreigners beyond some minor property damage.  This new disaster, however, is hitting closer home.

The algae bloom was a hard hit to the foreign population of Lake Atitlan, whose businesses rely on a steady flow of tourists.  The bad press from the algae bloom has kept tourists away.  It is understandable, the algae can be very toxic when in thick blooms and there is no easy way to remove it from the water.  Swimming is out of the question, and even showering can be a problem since bath water is pumped directly out of the lake, unless the hotel has its own well, which a lot of them do. 

By December the bloom had begun to dissipate, and today there is hardly any sign of the disastrous bloom.  If a visitor didn't know about the recent events, they might leave Lake Atitlan none the wiser. Yet the problem lurks there, deep below the tranquil blue waters, waiting for conditions to ripen for another bloom. 

The best scientific guess is that it will be worse than last year’s or it may not happen at all.  Mother Nature is fickle, and hard to predict. We do know there are enough nutrients in the water to feed the bloom for years, even if all new food sources were stopped today.  Yet there is a long term solution to this issue, a way to create a stable environment which will not promote the growth of the cyanobacteria. 

The government of Guatemala reacted to the bloom with a decisive plan of action, which they drew up in November.  The way to prevent the cyanobacteria from blooming out of control, is to take away its food source.  This cyanobacteria feeds primarily on nitrogen and phosphor. Nitrogen rich waste from sewers, nitrogen rich run-off from crop fertilizers and runoff of nutrient rich volcanic soil from road and housing construction, are the main suppliers of food for the cyanobacteria.  Plans entail building sewage treatment plants in every town. 

Panajachel, the largest city on the lake with over 40,000 people, had a sewage treatment plant which was poorly constructed and never worked well.  During Hurricane Stan, the plant was destroyed, and in the 5 years since the hurricane, never rebuilt.  After Stan, rebuilding a previously faulty sewage treatment plant was not a priority.  Homes, churches and schools needed to be rebuilt and repaired.  Crops needed to be planted.

With any extra money or time, the Mayan communities of San Pedro, San Marcos, Panajachel, and other towns around the lake were building restaurants, hotels, and acquiring tuk-tuks to service the ever increasing flow of tourists into the area.

There is a long history of corruption at both the local and national levels of government.

Ten years ago, ten million dollars was set aside for the preservation of the lake, now it seems to be missing. The Mayans have a significant distrust of the Guatemalan government, apparently for good reason.  The war is not so over in their minds.  The government is the same one that slaughtered thousands of Mayans, so they are very wary of anything it tells them. 

The indigenous Mayan communities around the lake have resisted change for over 500 years since the Spanish conquest, retaining customs, language and dress that predate Columbus. When outsiders come to tell them how to live and interact with their lake, it’s no wonder they are met with disbelief and doubt.  To many of the indigenous people the lake is forever, nothing to think or worry about. It was there for their ancestors and will be there for their descendants, regardless of what some outsider tries to tell them.

For the five years after Hurricane Stan the problem festered.  In 2008, my husband and I were kayaking on the lake, and he said to me, “What’s in the water?”  Suspended on the top of the water, was a filmy algae, brown and stinky.  I had no clue.  I guessed it has something to do with fertilizer run-off since we were in a heavily farmed section of the lake.  It eventually disappeared, and I thought no more about it. 

Until October 2009, when that filmy brown algae began to eat up the lake.  The Mayans were the first to catch it, they are in the lake on a daily basis, bathing, fishing and washing clothes.  The mayors of Santa Katarina and many other towns told the villagers that the lake was dirty, and to go to the shore and clean it.  Dutifully, the Mayans took their straw baskets, went into the lake, and began to remove basket-fulls of toxic, stinking brown algae and dump it onto the shore.  Alas, the problem only deepens when it is removed from the lake, for as it rots it releases its toxins, polluting the earth even more. 

Trying to explain this to a Maya is difficult if not impossible, the lake is a provider, not a destroyer.  At first when the scientific and international community tried to tell them the “natural” green goo was dangerous and potentially poisonous they would just look and smile, shaking their head at the confused gringo.  The mayor told us to clean it and he knows what’s best.  You are just a foreigner.  You know nothing about our lake. During this time many of the local Mayas who got into the stinking mess to clean the algae by hand contacted severe dermatitis, one of the less lethal potential results of the toxins. 

Yet by February 2010 little of the government plan has been accomplished.  After the initial reaction, people found other things to focus on and the lakes problem seems to be forgotten.  The bloom sunk into the deeps of the lake, and many feel that the problem is over.  The foreigners hope it was just a bad dream and wait for the Mayans to organize and take measures to reduce the pollution and nutrients entering the lake. 

The Mayans believe prayer and time will fix it, many don't care at all now that the bloom can no longer be seen.  The government of Guatemala, for all its fanfare, really doesn't seem to care much about the problems of its indigenous communities.  Systemic corruption and old hostilities still lie beneath surface smiles.  So who will respond to Lake Atitlan's cry for help?

The foreigners who have made Lake Atitlan their home are reacting with a mix of disbelief and despair. Some are joining with local people to create groups to take local action. Some are starting websites with links to information and other groups around the lake, like lakeatitlanhealth.com.  These efforts will help, but much more is needed if the lake and the people who call it home are to be preserved.  The ones with businesses rely on a steady flow of tourists, others who came for the beauty, had that destroyed when the green slime seemed to cover the entire lake.  This is supposed to be the busiest time of the year. 

Last year, the streets of tourist towns like San Pedro La Laguna were full of visitors and signs of prosperity.  This year tourism has been dramatically reduced.  If business doesn't resume its normal flow, a lot of business owners will be forced to call it quits.  Some already have.  Long time residents and business owners are saddened by the prospects of having to leave their home which they have grown to love so much. Many are dependent on their income from tourism, they must eat too. 

Bills must be paid, and employees won't work for free.  Mayans are feeling the heat too, as many own businesses that also rely on tourists for income.  They, however, know how to be patient and believe time and patience can eventually overcome any problem. They lived through the deprivations of the war and this time no one is shooting at them. They have been there all their lives, they wouldn't think of leaving even if they had the means to, which most don’t. 

It is clear this is a problem that will not go away without some large scale action.  The sewage treatment plants must be built.  Nitrogen rich chemical fertilizers must be banned from the lakes watershed and a more sustainable type of agriculture must be practiced, if not the lake will die.  Fish will not be able to live in the oxygen-poor environment created by the cyanobacerial blooms.  In fact, plants won't either.  Nothing will. 

The lake water will become toxic for human use all times of the year.  We don't know when this will happen, or what conditions must be met for it to happen.  We don't even know if any action at this point will prevent the lakes eventual eutrification.  To the Mayans this fear is silly.  Today the lake is beautiful.  It is a clear day, a brisk wind blowing over the lake.  The smell is gone with the bloom, and fishermen sit peacefully in their launchas, fishing like they and their ancestors have been doing for many hundreds of years.

International aid is needed in Lake Atitlan.  Peace Corp workers could be assisting with teaching sustainable methods of agriculture and helping to plan ways of reducing the nutrient flow into the lake. The problem needs decisive action from someone, whether it be the Mayans or the international community at large.  Lake Atitlan has put out a loud and clear S.O.S. even visible to satellites.  Her next one might be the last.

HELO

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