The contamination of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo is visible from space. This was revealed by scientists from NASA’s The Earth Observatory, an institution that makes public its data, images and discoveries about the environment and climate.
Lake Maracaibo is the largest in Latin America and the second oldest in the world at between 20 and 36 million years old. Its waters are fresh to the south and salty to the north, it spans more than 13,000 square kilometers, and is located in the northwest of the country, connected to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea. In the south of the lake, the meteorological phenomenon of the Catatumbo Lightning occurs (where more than 1 million flashes are generated annually), which is why the region is known as the lightning capital of the world.
The area has more than 10,000 oil wells, both active and inactive and this resource has been exploited since World War I. But the country’s geological history, biodiversity, the extension of its waters or the meteorological phenomenon of Catatumbo (which helps to repair the ozone layer through the ionization process) have never mattered. After decades of deterioration, only oil exploitation counts there.
Poor resource management and environmental degradation threaten the life of the species in the zone. Satellite images provided by NASA at the end of September showed that the lake is suffocating due to excess nutrients and oil leaks.
The area near Lake Maracaibo is one of the richest in oil reserves in the world, which made the region prosper for decades, but continuous oil spills and lack of governance threaten the existence of the water reservoir.
Environmentalists and scientists attribute the leaks to the poor state of the infrastructure, with very old submerged pipelines that have not been properly maintained. There have also been leaks from storage vessels and drilling platforms.
Spills have been frequently observed but, in recent years, they have increased considerably, accelerating the aging of the lake. Satellite images show shades of green and gray from oil slicks, river sediment, and algae.
Oil spills do not only occur in Lake Maracaibo; the entire coastline has been affected at different times. A year ago, a leak endangered the biodiversity of northeastern Venezuela, proving that protecting the ecosystem is not a priority.
Irresponsible exploitation has caused the proliferation of Lemna, which is suffocating the lake. This aquatic plant predominates in places with abundant hydrogen, which has been caused by the spillage of untreated sewage.
The shores of the lake are also full of garbage of great environmental impact, especially plastic, which comes from the incorrect disposal of residential waste, evidencing that there is also no citizen awareness in the framework of co-responsibility between government, business and society.
The hand of humanity has been endangering the site for decades. During the oil boom in the 1960s, the lake’s ledge was expanded to allow ship traffic. The operation did not have an environmental impact study. Later, a salinity problem that wiped out a large part of the ecosystem was observed.
Other sources of contamination are the nearby pig and poultry farms that dump waste into the lake, which serves as food for the bacteria that cause accelerated algae growth. In recent years, there has also been coal mining that contributes to the contamination of the lake’s waters.
Pollution does not stop the fishermen, who often haul in their nets full of oil. The resources from fishing are sold in the area despite the unhealthy state of the waters, which puts the population that eats these products at risk.
The people living nearby also use the polluted waters in their daily lives, living with garbage, oil slicks and Lemna. Some of these villages have disappeared, as in the case of the Congo Mirador, who had to abandon their roots after sedimentation ended their chances of continuing to live in the lake.
The documentary Once Upon a Time in Venezuela portrays the events that took place in this town for seven years, until it became a ghost town. Other villages can not be allowed to disappear, people must understand that it is necessary to raise awareness and make changes.
Image credits: NASA