What You Can Do

Leer esta página en español

These are practical steps for residents, visitors, farmers and businesses. They are suggestions, not rules. The people of San Pedro are the ones who live with the lake every day, so when in doubt, ask local groups what they actually need, and follow their lead.

A tree standing in the water at the edge of Lake Atitlán
A tree standing in the water at the lake’s edge.

For everyone

  • Check before you swim. Look up the current alert level on the lake authority’s website, and avoid contact with green or scummy water.1,2
  • Protect your drinking water. See “Protect your family’s water” below.
  • If you or someone in your family has a rash, an eye or ear infection, or a stomach illness after contact with the water, see a clinic.
  • Cut down on single-use plastic. San Pedro banned single-use plastic and Styrofoam in 2016.3 Bring your own bag and bottle.
  • Use the municipal waste service, and separate organic waste if asked. The municipal plant turns organic waste into compost.4 Do not dump trash, and do not leave it where rain can wash it into the lake.
  • Don’t wash clothes or dishes in the lake. The lake authority lists washing at the shore among the causes of fecal contamination.5 A university lake scientist also suggests choosing soaps with less phosphorus.6
  • Join or support a cleanup. The Guardianas del Lago hold monthly shoreline cleanups.7 Ask them whether visitors can help, and how, before you turn up.

Protect your family’s water

This is general information, not medical advice. For health questions, ask a clinic or health center.

  • Treat lake water before drinking. The lake authority’s 2025 tests found contamination at the lake drinking-water intakes, including San Pedro’s, and concluded lake water is not fit for drinking without treatment.5 In a small 2016 pilot in San Pedro, locally available clay household filters (about US$40) brought E. coli down to a mild-risk level, and removed about 99% of an algae toxin in laboratory tests.8
  • Nitrate is a separate issue. A study of San Pedro’s wells in 2015 and 2016 found nitrate above Guatemala’s drinking-water limit in seven of ten wells in the dry season.9 Germ filters and boiling are not generally known to remove nitrate, and boiling can make it more concentrated. We have not checked a specific source for your filter, so ask a clinic or the municipal health office. Nitrate matters most for infants and during pregnancy.
  • Ask about your water. Ask the municipality or a health center whether wells and water supplies in your neighborhood have been tested recently, and for nitrate in particular.

For farmers and landowners

  • Ask AMSCLAE about its agroforestry and compost programs.10 Its contact details are on its website.1
  • Ask the municipal waste plant about compost.4

For businesses

  • San Pedro’s 2025 ordinance requires homes to have wastewater systems. Ask the municipal environment office what is required of businesses and what is acceptable.11
  • Keep grease and cooking oil out of drains, and avoid single-use items.
  • If you have a listing in this site’s directory, we may add a way to show your lake-friendly practices. Tell us what you are doing.

If you see pollution

The lake authority lists a phone number, (502) 7961-6464, and the email informacion@amsclae.gob.gt.1 We cannot promise any complaint will lead to action. The Ministry of Environment’s sanctions and dozens of criminal complaints have been reported stalled.12

Tell us what you know

This site is a work in progress and is built to be added to. If you know of a group, a project, a study, a local practice or a photo that belongs here, or if you can help check something on these pages, please write to contact@sanpedrolalaguna.earth.

About this page

This page was compiled from public sources in October 2026. It has not yet been reviewed by people in San Pedro,. If you know something we have missed or got wrong, such as a correction, a local study, a group’s work or your own experience, please send it to contact@sanpedrolalaguna.earth. We will read it and add or correct what we can confirm.

Sources

  1. AMSCLAE (Autoridad para el Manejo Sustentable de la Cuenca del Lago de Atitlán y su Entorno), official website. Link
  2. Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias (government news agency), “¿Conoce el cianosemáforo vigente en el lago de Atitlán?” November 25, 2024. Link
  3. La Cuerda (Guatemalan community periodical), “San Pedro la Laguna: acción y propuesta,” December 9, 2022. Link
  4. Agencia Ocote, “La procesión de la basura,” February 7, 2023. Link
  5. AMSCLAE, “Monitoreo de salubridad 2025” (the lake authority’s own annual report). Link
  6. Dix, M. (Centro de Estudios Atitlán, Universidad del Valle), “Problemas ambientales Lago Atitlán,” presentation, March 25, 2014. Link
  7. Agencia Ocote, “La comunidad que limpia a la abuela lago,” September 16, 2024. Link
  8. Roegner, A. et al., household water filters in San Pedro La Laguna, 2016. Peer-reviewed; small pilot; laboratory tests for toxin removal. Link
  9. Rodríguez Juárez, E., “Nitrógeno en las aguas subterráneas del municipio de San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá,” Agua, Saneamiento & Ambiente (Universidad de San Carlos), 2018. Peer-reviewed; samples from 2015 to 2016. Link
  10. AMSCLAE, “Memoria de labores 2025” (the authority’s own annual report), March 2026. Link
  11. Prensa Comunitaria, “Reglamento municipal de San Pedro La Laguna para proteger el lago tiene contradicciones,” August 2025. Link
  12. Ojo con mi Pisto, “Atitlán: 39 denuncias por contaminación siguen varadas en la Fiscalía.” Link