Pictures reveal how Bolivia's' second-largest lake is now a desert

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Bolivia’s second largest lake has dried up with devastating impacts, proving that financial support from the European Union was not enough to save the high-altitude saltwater ecosystem of Bolivia’s Lake Poopo prompting local authorities to declare a national disaster, local media reported Sunday. The saline lake had been ebbing away for years, thanks to a combination of factors but had at least been able to retain some of its water, until now.

While local NGOs have worked to aid the communities that have depended on the lake for survival, including the construction of well systems and the creation of a clay exportation business, most have been forced to migrate, Reuters reported. One case in account is of local fisherman Calle Rojas and his five children. He is thinking of making the same decision as has been made by roughly two thirds of his community of some 500 families — picking up and moving to a new city in Bolivia, Argentina or Chile.