The contamination of the Lerma-Chapala-Santiago Basin will be one of the main themes of the Lagos World Congress, in its 18th edition, to be held in our country in October 2020.
Experts from 45 countries will attend the Congress, one of them is the American Walter Rast, a member of the International Lacustrine Environment Committee (ILEC).
Through Alejandro Juárez Aguilar, operational director of the Heart of the Earth AC Institute, who served as a translator, Walter Rast argues that to clean up a lake you must go to the source of the problem, that is, not focus only on the lake, but waters above and the removal of contaminants, including herbicides.
“One of the main topics that are being promoted by ILEC is the integral management of lake basins. It focuses on the problems of the lake have to be solved from the origin and the origin is not in the body of water, but in the outside parts, ”explained the American.
Both Walter Rast and Masahisa Nakamura, this one of Japanese nationality and both members of the Scientific Committee of the International Committee of Lacustrine Environments, are in Guadalajara and offered the conference “Lakes of the World: Lessons by Chapala”.
Sofía Hernández Morales, director of Transversality and Territorial Governance of the Ministry of Environment (Semadet), said that the only way to clean up Lake Chapala and its basin is collaborative work between governments, universities, and communities.
“The way in which Semadet is implementing this policy is to see the vision of the basin with municipal associations integrated precisely from this type of territory where they have common problems and are working on the agendas in this regard. Some of them such as the Aipromades (Intermunicipal Association for the Protection of the Environment and Sustainable Development of Lake Chapala) that have this vision of the basin for Lake Chapala, ”he said.
Nakamura and Rast shared their experiences to apply them to the problems of Lake Chapala, such as dusting, pollution by sewage, fertilizers, and pesticides, the disappearance of native species and invasion of the federal zone.
The experts will be in Mexico from July 22-29 leading an ILEC delegation that will work, together with the University of Guanajuato, in the organization of the 18th World Lake Conference. It is the first time that this international meeting of researchers and managers of lakes and basins will be held in Mexico. When Congress is held in Guanajuato, a state that is part of the Lerma-Chapala Basin, there is an interest in making the case visible and generating information inputs that contribute to its better management.
Source: cronicajalisco
The Mazatlan Post
