Central America Lake Atitlan is having serious eco problems.

 By Tom Johnson

 As reported in the Guatemala Times  Lake Atitlan is being contaminated daily by population explosions and the increased urbanization around the lake.

The sewage, solid, liquid and industrial waste is dumped indiscriminately into the different water bodies’ additionally massive deforestation and intensive agriculture around the water bodies is also a big problem. All is directly related to overpopulation of humans.

The recent “algae bloom” in Lake Atitlan has triggered an enormous alarm in the population and the media. Many people are panicking and basically believe that something drastic has happened to Lake Atitlan in just a few days, but this assumption is wrong.

The problem has been steadily increasing for many years. But now, because it is has become finally visible to everybody’s eyes, the problem has finally become tangible, we have: “algae bloom”. Now people start to react.
Guatemala has the same phenomenon in Lake Atitlan although this is due to specie of blue green algae. Well, algae is the wrong word, what we see is actually something called: cyanobacteria. Cyanobaceria grow because of excessive levels of nutrients including phosphor and nitrogen in the water.

The cyanobacteria in Atitlan have been identified as Lyngbya hironymusii (Lyngbya hieronymusii), actually a rarity among the cyanobacterias.

This is a serious crisis, but a crisis is also the best time to join forces, accept that we all are to blame for not doing enough and it is a tremendous opportunity to solve the environmental problem of Lake Atitlan for the future.

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