Flamingos are returning to Lake Uru Uru in the Bolivian highlands as it gets cleaner, thanks to the hard work of a group of young Indigenous women who call themselves the Uru Uru Team.

The team’s co-founder, Dayana Blanco, 25, is an Aymara woman who is a Fulbright fellow studying peace-building at the University of Massachusetts in the US.

Pollution caused by waste from the nearby city of Oruro poses a threat to the Indigenous community, local flora and fauna, and an internationally recognized wetland under the Ramsar convention. 

Since 2019, the Uru Uru Team has developed floating rafts that blend Indigenous knowledge with the scientific principles of phytoremediation. It builds the rafts from recycled plastic bottles that are thrown in the lake as rubbish, and puts native aquatic plants called Totoras on top of the floating rafts.

Totoras are bulrushes that can grow to 6 metres which were used to make Lake Titicaca’s famous floating islands. The plant, Schoenoplectus californicus, has been shown to be very effective at absorbing heavy metals and contaminants in the polluted waters. The rafts have successfully reduced lake pollution by 30%.

But it has gone beyond just addressing pollution.

Through the initiative, the Urus community managed to establish a community garden to support the maintenance of the rafts and generate income. The Uru Uru team showcases an effective model to ensure the well-being of an Indigenous community, preserve their knowledge and cultural identity, while curbing lake pollution to protect biodiversity.

“Our goal as a group community is to restore and remedy our Uru Uru Lake through nature-based solutions based on respect, care, and harmony with Mother Earth.”

In 2023, the team was awarded the Equator Prize by the United Nations Development Programme. It is awarded biennially to recognize outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. 

Sustainable community initiatives are laying the foundation for a global movement of local successes that are collectively making a contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN says. The Equator Prize shines a spotlight on their efforts by celebrating them on an international stage

Sources

‘We empower ourselves’: the women cleaning up Bolivia’s Lake Uru Uru. The Guardian, Sep. 18 2024

Uru Uru Team. Equator Initiative 2023.

Protecting and Restoring Uru Uru Lake. Podcast, Learning for Nature, Jan. 8 2024