Water Quality of the Inner Puno Bay of Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca straddles the border between Bolivia and Peru and is the highest lake in the world. The Lake has held great significance, particularly to the Incan empire for the last five thousand years as a source of drinking water, for agricultural use, and is the primary source for protein from native and more recently from non-native species of fish. It currently supports a growing fish farming industry for both Bolivia and Peru. Puno is one of the major urban centers on Lake Titicaca and supports a population of about 1.3 million people which derive their drinking water and a primary source of protein from the Inner Bay. The Inner Puno Bay of Lake Titicaca, has historically had water quality issues due to the discharge of effluent into this restricted bay. The goal of this research project is to review previous studies on water quality of the inner Puno Bay and the greater Puno Bay and to establish a seasonal monitoring program (February, May, August and December) that collects water quality data including pH, conductivity/resistivity, total dissolved solids, phosphate, nitrite, nitrate, metals, and qualitative and quantitative data on E. coli and enterococcus bacteria. The existing water quality data indicate that the water of the inner bay is alkaline and contains phosphate which is indicative of the presence of dissolved solids in the water, probably derived from the effluent. These data also suggest an increasing occurrence of E. coli and enterococcus bacteria which severely affects the water quality in the Inner Puno Bay and reduces water quality in adjacent areas of the lake where drinking water is derived, and fish farms are present. This not only presents health risks to the inhabitants of the Puno region but may present health risks to the large number of tourists that visit the region each year. The review of the historical data on water quality supplemented by our seasonal monitoring supports the timely development of a remediation plan to mitigate the poor water quality, ensuring quality drinking water, maintaining a healthy pisciculture, and reducing health risks to residents and tourists.