__NOTOC__ Uru Uru Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the

Oruro Department Oruro (; Quechua: ''Uru Uru''; Aymara: ''Ururu'') is a department of Bolivia, with an area of . Its capital is the city of Oruro. According to the 2012 census, the Oruro department had a population of 494,178. Provinces of Oruro The departme ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. It is fed by the Desaguadero River and the Jach'a Jawira. It is situated at an elevation of 3,686 m, its surface area is 214 km². The lake is formed by the flow of the Desaguadero River at its mouth into

Lake Poopó __NOTOC__ Lake Poopó ( es, Lago Poopó ) was a large saline lake in a shallow depression in the Altiplano Mountains in Oruro Department, Bolivia, at an altitude of approximately . Because the lake was long and wide (), it made up the eastern ...

, over the extensive sedimentation known as "Santo Tomás" from the small hermitage found there that was completely inundated. The formation dates to 1962. The river connects

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...

and Lake Poopó.

Ecology

The lake used to be a tourist attraction for boating and fishing, as it contained a large number of fish. During a long drought in 2016, the lake lost almost all of its water. This was described by local media and experts as an environmental catastrophe caused by several factors, including climate change and the use of water for mining. In 2021, a large part of the lake is covered by trash. Much of it is plastic from nearby Oruro where residents dump their refuse. There is also contamination from run-off from nearby mines as the town

Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by populat ...

is an industrial mining center. The lake is polluted by heavy metals such as

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

, and

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uru Uru Lakes of Oruro Department Ramsar sites in Bolivia Tourist attractions in Oruro Department Environmental disasters Altiplano

Ecology

See also

References