Lake Atitlan: The Goose Ain’t Laying Golden Eggs Anymore

Atitlan tourism plummets; will business and government cure goose or only fix $30 million dollar tourist hen house?

By Greg Szymanski, JD
March 23, 2010

Lake Atitlan has been called “Guatemala’s goose that laid the golden egg” for its tourist boom that brings in more than $30 million a year.

But now the goose is sick.

The golden eggs are few and far between.

But instead of healing the goose, self-absorbed and greedy business owners, who never gave much back to the goose anyway, are scrambling to entice foreigners to come back Lake Atitlan.

They are offering hotel deals like two nights for the price of one and other slick advertising gimmicks like Las Vegas hotel owners trying to rig the slot machines while giving away cheap rooms and meals.

Lake Atitlan also is soon to be included in a $12 million dollar tourist campaign by the Gautemalen Institute for Tourism. Although we are not privy to their advertising slogans, we are sure they won’t be mentioning cyanobacteria has left the lake unsafe for swimming let alone drink the water.

All these business interests seem to be scrambling to save the “$30 million dollar hen house” but not wanting to save the goose, a goose dying a slow death from years of neglect, over pollution, raw sewage and garbage dumping and toxic fertilizer agricultural run-off.

“It would seem more prudent and wise to first spend a big chunk of the $12 million dollar advertising money first on effective monitoring of cyanobacteria,” said the head of an awareness and charitable organization called Save Lake Atitlan Mission set up to help the indigenous people on the lake shore, who are suffering the most.

“There is not one effective waste water management plant on the lake where more than 60, 000 people live and tens of thousands of tourists come every year to put their pretty little footsies in the supposed “crystal clear” water, words which I am sure will be included in the upcoming advertising campaign.

“Well, the water isn’t so crystal clear anymore and where do you think all the raw sewage is going? Why not use some of the $12 million in advertising money to build environmentally friendly waste water management facilities. Why? Because it is easier to make up stories that the lake is safe and crystal clear while robbing Peter to pay Paul. Take the fast tourist buck and run.

“Atitlan doesn’t even have an effective cyanobacteria monitoring put into place and we surely are not going to be listen to a few hotel owners doing their own haphazard studies, telling us the lake is safe when we recently talked with several people who just left Atitlan in February diagnosed with amoebic dysentery.”

Instead of spending millions on advertising, use some of the money for effective monitoring and waste water plants.

Two companies ready to go to work, but have never been contacted are Blue Water Satellite and Eco-Tek.

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