Canada may boast having the world’s most environmentally threatened lake for the year 2013. Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg joins past ‘winners’ for this undesirable title, including Lake Titicaca and the Dead Sea — in fact this is the first time a North American lake has made the list. The group that proclaimed Lake Winnipeg the most threatened in the world is the Global Nature Fund out of Germany, which is an international organization set to protect nature, animals, and the environment.

Lake Winnipeg is Canada’s third largest freshwater lake, and the world’s tenth largest lake, yet has a considerably lower watershed population per sq. km compared to other lakes its size — this is what makes its severe pollution so notable. Agricultural run-off and sewage discharges create blue-green algae in the lake, which can be toxic to humans and disrupt the balance of Lake Winnipeg’s ecosystem. The lake has also experienced an increase in flooding as of late due to climate change, wetland drainage, and regulation of water levels. 

After acquiring the ‘coveted’ title of “Threatened Lake of the Year,” the Lake Winnipeg Foundation, which has been working to protect the lake since 2006, has vowed to turn things around for this polluted body of water with the first stages in the plan to be revealed soon. Even if it did require the intervention of an international foundation and some embarrassment to get this point, past polluted lakes on the list have been able to turn it around, so why not us?  

[via CTV News, Global Nature Fund — Threatened Lake of the Year 2013]

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Hallae Khosravi is an intern at Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter @hallaek. 

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