How a Bolivian Woman Is Reviving a Dying Lake with Plants
The winner of the 2026 Bloomberg Green Docs competition follows an Aymara Indigenous woman trying to bring Uru Uru Lake in western Bolivia back from the brink.
Uru Uru Lake in Bolivia once provided pristine water, fish, and birds for generations, but toxic contamination from mining and nearby Oruro city began in the 1990s. Dayana Blanco Quiroga, an Aymara Indigenous woman, co-founded the Uru Uru Team in 2019 to clean the lake by hand. Their efforts are showcased in the documentary "How to Plant a Lake," which won the 2026 Bloomberg Green Docs competition.
The film, directed by Satomi Blair and CG Foisy, follows the team's ten-year mission to restore the lake and involves planting pollution-absorbing totora reeds in the basin. The filmmakers, 4Hawk Productions, traveled to Bolivia and collaborated with The World Around, a nonprofit promoting sustainable architecture.
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