Lake Poopó Bolivian Natural Disaster Does Not Stop Oruro Carnival 2016

Summary: The Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster of 2015 to Bolivia’s second-largest lake will not stop the world-famous Oruro Carnival from being held in 2016.

Lake Poopó in April 2013 (left) and in January 2016 (right): NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Landsat 8 - OLI data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via NASA Earth Observatory

Provincial organizers are intending to hold the world-famous Carnaval de Oruro from Feb. 5, to Feb. 9, 2016, in Oruro, southwestern Bolivia, despite the Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster Dec. 9, 2015.

The 2,000-year-old events bring visitors to Bolivia’s largest and oldest festival, deemed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. Forty-eight pilgrim groups come together to present 18 different dances through Oruro’s same-named departmental city, site of the world’s only Carnival dance honoring Our Lady Mary. Oruro draws visitors as inaugural site of the 149-foot (45.42-meter), world-largest Marian statue, 22 feet (6.71 meters) taller than Rio de Janeiro’s Cristo Redentor (Christ Redeemer).

The mine-rich department entertains important connections as the birthplace of Juan Evo Morales Ayma, 80th President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia since Jan. 22, 2006.

President Morales finds politico-economic connections with Oruro Department, where former Vice Minister of Rural Development, Hugo Víctor Vásquez Mamani, is the governor-elect since March 29, 2015. Membership in the governing Movement for Socialism Party gives the two common perspectives regarding nationally significant regional problems, such as the Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster.

Lake Poopó, formerly landlocked, mountainous Bolivia’s second-largest lake after Titicaca, holds the official status of evaporated natural disaster through a departmental law enacted by Governor Vásquez. Official status is intended to facilitate acquisition and dispersal of funds to bring back what Milton Pérez Lovera of Oruro Technical University calls “a lifeless lake.”

Governor Vásquez judges that a total investment of 800 million bolivianos ($114 million) will be needed in order to right the Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster.

Locals know of Lake Poopó, at an altitude of 3,700 meters (12,139.11 feet) above sea level, as subject to the extreme bio-geography of Bolivia’s semi-arid plains.

Lake Poopó lacks documentation before the 20th century even though anecdotes recall previous disappearances despite replenishment by Desaguadero, tributary of Lake Titicaca in La Paz department. Rainfall below 1,000 millimeters (39.37 inches) and temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) menace optimal 5-meter (16.40-foot) depths and 2,540 square-kilometer (980.69 square-mile) areas.

President Morales notes concerning Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster events: “My father told me about crossing the lake on a bicycle once when it dried up.”

Governor Vásquez observes the human tolls of 100 families having to abandon their ancestral village, Untavi, and of 3,250 families having to rely upon humanitarian aid.

Temperature rising 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) and 161-billion-liter (42,531,700,249.962-gallon) water shortfalls prompt German consortium Gitex-Cobodes’ 2013-issued predictions of conflict, emigration and irreversible ecosystem changes. Agro-industrial-devised water diversions, El Niño and La Niña weather patterns, global warming, retreating glaciers and sedimentation from cadmium, lead and untreated tailings qualify as ecosystem disrupters.

Three wetlands remain from 2015’s Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster, whose resolution Governor Vásquez and President Morales foresee with European Union-funded treatment plants and watershed dredges.

Mr. Pérez states that, from agricultural engineering investigations, “I don’t think we’ll be seeing the azure mirror of Poopo again. I think we’ve lost it.”

Exports and tourism turn out to be profitable revenue sources for Bolivia so not stopping Oruro Carnival 2016 may stop 2015’s Lake Poopó Bolivian natural disaster.

Virgen del Socavón, world's largest statue of Our Lady Mary, is honored by the world's only carnival dance dedicated specifically to Our Lady Mary: Sainzlaurita, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Lake Poopó: NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Landsat 8 - OLI data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via NASA Earth Observatory @ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=87363

la Virgen del Socavón: Sainzlaurita, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virgen_del_socavon_1.jpg

For further information:

“Alertan de que el Segundo lago más grande de Bolivia se convierte en un desierto.” Diario Las Américas > América Latina > Cambio Climático > 14 de diciembre de 2015.
Available @ http://www.diariolasamericas.com/5051_portada-america-latina/3514182_alertan-que-el-segundo-lago-mas-grande-de-bolivia-se-convierte-en-un-desierto.html

“Bolivia’s Second-Largest Lake Has All But Disappeared.” Fox News Latino > Jan. 21, 2016.
Available @ http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2016/01/21/bolivia-second-largest-lake-has-officially-been-declared-evaporated/

“Bolivia’s Second Largest Lake ‘Officially Disappears’.” Australia Network > News > Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ http://www.australianetworknews.com/bolivias-second-largest-lake-officially-disappears/

CCTV English. 20 January 2016. "Bolivia's second largest lake dries up." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoSVPkpiPUQ

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 January 2016. "Large, Undeveloped Bolivian Lithium Reservoirs May Recharge the World." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/large-undeveloped-bolivian-lithium.html

reported.ly @reportedly. 21 January 2016. "Bolivia's second largest lake, Lake Poopó, is drying up thanks to drought. (Images: @NASAEarth)." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/reportedly/status/690358644802785281

Valdez, Carlos. 21 January 2016. “Disappearance of Bolivia’s No. 2 Lake a Harbinger.” Phys.Org > Earth > Environment.
Available @ http://phys.org/news/2016-01-bolivia-lake-harbinger.html