Every day, Liliana Tobar and Sonia Pérez wake up at 4:30 a.m. to remove plastic from the reservoir. They’ve been following this routine for nearly a month. It’s been difficult work for they because no matter how much garbage they remove, the same amount will be in the water the next day.
The water currents that flow from San Salvador through the Acelhuate River and into the Lempa River continue to carry plastic waste to the Cerrón Grande reservoir. The amount of garbage on Potonico’s shores keeps growing.
Waste is a perennial problem in Potonico. According to community leaders, in previous years, when the reservoir water receded in the summer, the garbage was deposited on land used for planting corn and beans, forcing the farmers to burn the plastic in order to harvest their crops. This year, because of the amount of mostly plastic waste, residents have organized to remove the garbage from the water.
The most garbage that Potonico’s fishers have removed from the reservoir on a single day was 500 bags that weighed approximately 20 pounds each, for a total of 5.5 tons of recyclable and non-recyclable waste. After the residents pick up the garbage, goverment trucks take it to different landfills.
In 2005, the Cerrón Grande reservoir became a protected Ramsar site because of its biodiversity and importance as a source of life and livelihood for the surrounding populations. Cerrón Grande is El Salvador’s second largest wetland after Jiquilisco Bay. The wildlife there must now live alongside floating trash.
Thousands of small expanded polystyrene (plastic) particles are swept along by the Lempa River’s currents, caking the Cerrón Grande reservoir in Potonico, Chalatenango. The particles are so small that fish and other local animals can easily ingest them. Expanded polystyrene is non-recyclable and primarily used in fast food and for protecting electronic equipment.
The Piedra del Idioma ranching cooperative gathered 50 people together to remove garbage from the reservoir. During the first few weeks, they paid for their own food, oil, and gasoline for the boat motors. Thereafter, the Lempa River Executive Commission (CEL) gave them garbage bags, gloves, and whatever else they needed to operate the boats: "With or without help, we will continue to remove the garbage because it’s important to us; here, we share the common struggle of recovering the sources of our employment," said a cooperative leader.
Potonico has cooperatives of farmers and fishers who work from 5:00 a.m. to noon cleaning the reservoir because the Lempa River is one of their families’ main sources of income. According to one of the community leaders, they started working to remove the waste even before the Mayor's Office and the Hydroelectric Executive Commission (CEL) did.
Members of Potonico’s Piedra del Idioma cooperative of farmers and ranchers note that illnesses among their horses and cows have increased. They say that their cattle are experiencing stomach infections from drinking water containing pieces of plastic, which the animals are unable to expel.
Potonico residents’ cleaning efforts seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of garbage dragged in by the river currents. They say that day workers from the Ministry of the Environment once tried to place a trammel net to collect more garbage, but it gave way under the weight, so the labor of picking up vast amounts of waste must be done by hand.