San Pedro La Laguna

543 Words3 Pages
San Pedro La Laguna is a small fishing and farming town in Guatemala. The residents of San Pedro La Laguna are primarily Mayan practicing medicine, crafts, cooking and religion that maintain an old world feel of the water side town. Lake Atitlán is the towns’ source of food, water and transportation and is becoming polluted. This problem challenges the Guatemalan people who rely on the lake as a source of income. The townspeople noticed large amounts of green scum, cyanobacteria, accumulating along the lakes shoreline. The cyanobacteria growing in the lake threatens the people’s ability to fish, bathe, and attain water necessary for village life. Groups of people gather every day in hopes of removing the bacteria to keep the lake clean. A suspected source of the bacteria comes from a pipe that drains from the towns’ sewage treatment plant that was destroyed in Hurricane Stan in 2005 . This major source of pollution needs to be fixed in order to prevent irreversible damage to Lake Atitlán. The townspeople spend a large amount of time removing the bacteria every day. If the town solely focuses on the removal of bacteria the country’s…show more content…
As stated in the movie, “directly to the peasants because honestly if help comes, there are those who will take advantage”. Without an outside source of help the lake could become further polluted, affecting other lakeside towns. This could grow into a bigger problem effecting the country’s exports if not enough attention is given to growing crops, sending the country further into poverty. Without exportation and a source of income the country will not be able to fund farms, hospitals or local efforts to improve the lake and surrounding towns. While traditional Mayan practices of medicine and healing are still in use today, many people prefer modern medicine because of the shorter treatment time. If hospitals become unable to afford medical services the rate of disease will
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