Tucked between snow-capped mountains, Lake Titicaca was once worshipped by the Inca, who proclaimed its deep blue waters the birthplace of the sun.

These days the shores of South America’s largest lake are littered with dead frogs, discarded paint buckets and bags of soggy trash. Less visible threats lurk in the water itself: toxic levels of lead and mercury.

The steady deterioration of the prized tourist destination has caused a rash of health problems among the 1.3 million people in Peru and Bolivia living near Lake Titicaca’s polluted banks.

Untreated sewage water drains from two dozen nearby cities, and illegal gold mines high in the Andes dump up to 15 tons of mercury a year into a river leading to the lake.

“If the frogs could talk they would say, ‘This is killing me,'” said Maruja Inquilla, a local environmental activist who recently showed up at the governor’s house in Puno, Peru, which is on the lake’s shore, carrying plastic bags filled with hundreds of dead frogs in protest.

Increasing concern about pollution has prompted a series of scientific studies and promises of official action. (AP)

>>> Read more about the contamination of Lake Titicaca here.

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