No place for flowers: El Salvador's biggest lake swamped by trash

Members of "Piedra del Idioma" (Language Stone), a cooperative of fishermen and farmers, clean the the El Cerron Grande reservoir in Potonico, El Salvador September 14, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

LAKE SUCHITLAN, El Salvador (Reuters) - A horse wades through a sea of plastic bottles, tin cans and green sludge that fills El Salvador's largest freshwater lake, stark images showing how a key drinking water source goes neglected even as global environmental concerns are on the rise.

Known locally as Suchitlan, meaning "place of flowers" in the indigenous Nahuatl language, the Cerron Grande reservoir's ecosystem is home to native fish, waterbirds and mammals such as cougars and ocelots.