It’s located in one of the poorest regions of the country, and tourism has become quite an important source of income for many people there. If the lake’s beauty is lost, so will the tourist industry.

water doesn’t flow out of the lake, it only evaporates, so the lake is never “flushed clean”. this causes toxins to build up and recently its become completely toxic.

This is not immediately or easily reversible (and possibly not reversible at all). We were there about 3 years ago and swam in the lake, but you can’t any more. You’d get a rash and be very sick.

Most of the raw sewage from the little villages around the edges flows directly into the lake. There is no sewerage system in most of these villages. a lot of their litter goes into the lake too, that which isn’t burnt at the side of the road. We noticed that it was full of used nappies and plastic fertiliser bottles, drowned kittens and plastic bags and turds. At that point we got out of the lake :s

The harsh chemical fertilisers used by the peasant farmers to grow their maize on the poor soil of the deforrested hills surrounding the lakes, flows into the lake and causes algal blooms which has caused a greeny slime to fill the lake, which strips the lake of oxygen, killing fish and other organisms. In recent years the deforrestation and heavy rainfall contributed towards a massive landslide which wiped out one of those small villages.
Its a beautiful place to visit but might not be for long – this would be a real loss, it was one of the real highlights of my trip to central america.