Dayana Blanco Quiroga, age 25, has witnessed Bolivia’s Uru Uru Lake become dangerously choked with mining runoff and industrial waste, severely impacting the future of seven Indigenous communities and the 76 bird species that call its wetland shores home. But she is determined to clean its polluted waters. Alongside her mentor, Argentine curator Sebastián Acampante, and her Uru Uru Team, the Aymara climate leader is fighting back by building floating rafts of totora reeds—a native plant her ancestors knew as a natural purifier—to draw the toxins out of the lake. Combining ancestral knowledge, science and collective action, an all-too-familiar tale of environmental crisis has become an example of resilience, restoration, and proof that anyone with the right tools can help tackle the climate emergency. How To Plant A Lake is a part of the Young Climate Stories series presented by The World Around.

Young Climate Stories is a documentary series of short films that follows the journeys of extraordinary young innovators who are actively changing the future of their communities. Each film centers on a winner of The World Around Young Climate Prize, capturing the people, places, and communities that have shaped their work.

Young Climate Stories is an original production by The World Around and 4Hawk, made possible by MillerKnoll.