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“Every year it goes down, and down and down. The lake gets drier with every year that goes by, he added. “My father still told me that you could swim, about the fish that were there, that you could eat them with complete confidence.” “Imagine the quality of that fish because all the contaminants that are in the water go to the animal,” says Felipe Barrera, 46, a local chinampa farmer who has witnessed the lake’s decline over his lifetime. Now experts report the presence of fecal coliform, streptococci and enterococci, heavy metals and endocrine disruptors, among other pollutants. To counteract the imbalance that the excessive extraction of water has had on the lake’s ecosystem, the government began injecting water of secondary quality from a treatment plant in el Cerro de la Estrella in the 1970s.Īround the same time, the Mexican government decided to introduce carp and tilapia-alien invasive species that feed on the axolotl-as a means of subsistence for the local people. Originally rich in fresh water and biodiversity, Lake Xochimilco has been reduced to a few waterways due to unregulated urban growth, as the government uses it to supply the water needs of the growing city. The salamander is such a cultural icon among the Mexican people that the Bank of Mexico has printed it on the nation’s 50-peso bill. More than 250 of these species are endemic, including the axolotl. It is home to 2 percent of the world’s biological diversity: around 1,700 species of plants, 57 species of reptiles, 320 species of birds, 70 species of mammals and 20 species of amphibians. The lake also serves as a respite for migratory birds like pelicans and herons. It also holds the lasting chinampas-small, rectangular islands first built by the Aztecs for agriculture centuries ago using willow trees, lilies and mud.
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Lake Xochimilco is the only remaining lake of five that once formed the lacustrine basin of the Valley of Mexico, an area of canals and island farms that comprise more than 6,000 acres of protected wetlands on the southern tip of Mexico City. Acosta Ruiz did not respond to a request for comment.īut the battle to save the axolotl speaks to a larger issue: saving one of the most controversial wetlands in the country. They didn’t have the required environmental permits, Camacho claims, nor did they follow the suggested protocols to release the axolotls. Late last month, Camacho filed a lawsuit in the Attorney General’s Office against José Carlos Acosta Ruiz, the Xochimilco community mayor, for illegal environmental actions and animal cruelty, given the contamination in Lake Xochimilco (pronounced sochi-MILK-o).