Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Fisherfolk Clean Contaminated Lake

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, May 27 2006 (IPS) - – Dozens of artisanal fisherfolk have been working since early May on a project to clean up the northern Guatemalan lake of Petén Itzá, overrun with waterlilies (Nymphaea) and contaminated with other solid waste. “We have limited resources but we hope to obtain more funds to continue cleaning the lake until the end of the year,” Mario Castellanos, director of the area's Sustainable Management and Development Authority, said in a Tierramérica interview.

In addition to cleaning the environment and giving a boost to tourism, the project aims to preserve species like the white fish (Petenia esplendida), native to El Petén department.

There are 21 participants in the project, most of them fisherfolk using their boats and canoes to drag invasive water plants to the shore.