Communities living by a polluted lake in Hidalgo that sustains hundreds of families are calling for the government to take action to rescue it.

Tecocomulco lake is under threat due to the accumulation of mud, water lilies and another reed known as tule.

The lake sits in a 56,000 hectare basin between the communities of Tecocomulco and Tepeapulco, about 65 kilometers southeast of Pachuca. It is a large aquatic ecosystem with a variety of animal and plant species. It is also where migratory birds from the northern Mexico, the United States and Canada make their nests, along with two species of amphibians in danger of extinction.

A local fisherman, Juan López, said the problem emerged from a smaller lake some 15 kilometers away. “The problem we have at the moment is the lilies … It’s a reed that was carried here, it is not native to the lake. It was in the dam of the Puerco lake which burst and that brought it here,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Milenio.

Juan López added that families were depending on authorities to act. “We have not been able to control it. We are asking the authorities to support us because we have already taken out many tonnes of lilies and it reproduces a lot … If this problem continues, it will end [the lake] and we have many families around it that depend on it … We also have two or three fishermen’s cooperatives. Their families and our families would lack the sustenance to survive” if the lake were not rescued, he said.

A community spokesman from San Miguel Allende, José Trinidad, reiterated the necessity for government assistance. “”We are requesting the support of the authorities, because we have been waiting here for some time with promises that have been made to us yet nothing has been done for this lake. It really is a very important lake as for its surroundings and for its most distant municipalities,” he said.

Another local person, José Antonio Vargas, said he felt cheated by the authorities. “They promise and promise. They have been promising us for many years and when they come to ask for our votes we give them [our votes], and they never come back,” he said.

With reports from Milenio