Bolivians remove tons of trash from Lake Uru Uru, home to flamingos

ORURO, Bolivia (Reuters) - Volunteers and local leaders in Bolivia's high-altitude city of Oruro suited up in safety gear on Saturday to clean the polluted banks of the Andean country's Lake Uru Uru, home to flamingos and an important stopover for migratory birds.

The lake is contaminated with mineral sediments and garbage, and since 2021, annual clean-ups have helped reclaim some 19 hectares (47 acres) that had been covered with trash, according to city officials.

"It used to be a lake. According to what our grandparents told us there was hunting and fishing, but now we see a lake of waste, a lake of plastic bottles, a lake of garbage," said Florencio Aguilar, a local leader of the indigenous Uru people.

Andres Aruquipa, manager at a city-run sanitation company, said he expected the weekend's clean-up to collect some 180 metric tons of trash.

(Reporting by Sergio Limachi and Santiago Limachi; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Sandra Maler)