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News|In Pictures

Lagoon dries up as Peru’s southern Andes faces drought

The area is experiencing its driest period in almost a half-century, affecting more than 3,000 communities

An emaciated sheep walks on the dry bed of the Cconchaccota lagoon
An emaciated sheep walks on the dry bed of the Cconchaccota lagoon in the Apurimac region of Peru, Friday, November 25 [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
Published On 3 Dec 20223 Dec 2022
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The Cconchaccota lagoon, located in Peru’s southern Andes, has been a source of life for the local communities in the region, as the reservoir attracted migratory flamingos and animals while residents depended on it for trout fishing.

But the lagoon, 4,100 metres (13,120 feet) above sea level, is now a plain of cracked and broken soil surrounded by yellow grass.

The rainy season in this part of South America should have started in September, but the area is experiencing its driest period in almost a half-century, affecting more than 3,000 communities in the central and southern Andes of Peru.

A light rain last week — only the second in almost eight months — prompted residents to set bowls outdoors to collect some water.

The absence of rain in part of the Andes occurs as a result of the La Nina phenomenon, present in 2022 for the third consecutive year, according to the United Nations meteorological agency. The drought is also hitting parts of Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.

In Cconchaccota, there is no drinking water, sewage or telephone service. People collect drinking water from a nearby spring, though it sometimes dries up, too.

Residents say their appeals to local authorities for help went unanswered for more than two months. A long-delayed response from the regional authorities arrived last week with the delivery of packages of fodder oats for the surviving sheep, cattle, alpacas and llamas.

“The animals are all bone,” said John Franklin Challanca, a 12-year-old shepherd whose family has lost 50 sheep.

The Andes is one of the world’s most sensitive regions to climate migrations because of droughts, tropical storms and hurricanes, heavy rains and floods, according to the latest report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Climate experts believe the lagoon could have dried up because it was less than a metre (3 feet) deep, depended exclusively on rainwater and was under strong solar radiation.

Wilson Suárez, professor of mountain hydrology and glaciology at Peru’s La Molina National Agrarian University, said those factors constitute “an ideal cocktail” for the small lagoons in the high Andean areas to dry up.

“This has to put them on notice that times are changing,” Suárez said of residents who have long depended on the lagoons for watering their livestock. “A drought is not easy to handle … the climate is changing.”

View of the drying Cconchaccota lagoon
View of the drying Cconchaccota lagoon in the Apurimac region of Peru. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
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Residents carry fodder
Residents carry fodder for their animals. The delivery of packages of fodder oats for the surviving sheep, cattle, alpacas and llamas is the long-delayed response from the regional authorities to the ongoing drought. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
A man turns over the soil for planting potatoes
A man turns over the soil for planting potatoes. Because of the ongoing drought, the planting of potatoes, which is the only crop that grows in the village has been delayed, leading many to expect food shortages in the coming months. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
A woman stands near a spring next to a dead sheep
A woman stands near a spring next to a dead sheep. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
Dry earth crusts on the bed of the Cconchaccota lagoon
Dry earth crusts on the bed of the Cconchaccota lagoon. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
Girls play with a block of ice
Two girls play with a block of ice pieced together from sleet that fell the day before. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
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A woman collects potatoes
A woman collects potatoes before sowing. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
Girls carry a dying sheep
Girls carry a dying sheep amid an ongoing drought. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
Residents harvest potatoes
Residents harvest potatoes at a field near the Cconchaccota. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]
Women pray
Women pray during a religious service at the only evangelical church in the Cconchaccota community. A woman at the prayer service said that the ongoing drought is a punishment “for the sins of man” and a clear sign that the end of the world is soon to come. [Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo]


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