(Redirected from Lago de Managua)
'Lake Managua' (also known as 'Lake Xolotlán') (located at ) is a
lake in
Nicaragua. The name is Lago de Managua or Lago Xolotlán. It is approximately 65 kilometres (40 miles) long and 25 kilometres (15 miles) wide. Similarly to the name of Lake Nicaragua, its name was coined by the Spanish conquerors from
"Mangue" (their name for the
Mánkeme tribes) and ''agua'' ("water"). The city of
Managua, the capital of
Nicaragua, lies on its southwestern shore.
The lake has been severely polluted, in part by
Kodak dumping
mercury into the lake in the
1950s, but mostly by decades of waste sewer being dumped on the lake. Despite the pollution, some of the people of Managua still live along the lake's banks and eat the fish.
It rose 3 metres (10 feet) in five days during
Hurricane Mitch in
1998, destroying the homes of many who lived on its edge.
It is also joined by the
Tipitapa River to another lake,
Lake Nicaragua; however, due to the extreme pollution, the
bull sharks of Lake Nicaragua can't join Lake Managua.
Gallery
External links
★
JPL NASA: PIA03365: Perspective View with Landsat Overlay, Lakes Managua (foreground) and Nicaragua (background)
★
View of Lake of Managua on Google Maps (green arrow indicates city of Managua)