By Jose Cabezas

SUCHITOTO, El Salvador (Reuters) -In July, Alberto Castillo abandoned his boat on the shores of Lake Suchitlan. He could no longer fish or take tourists around the lake – El Salvador’s largest – because it was overrun with water lettuce. He is among thousands of families that live around the lake who have lost their livelihoods because of the invasive species’s spread.

Satellite images from early October show that nearly the entire 52-square-mile (135-square-km) lake is covered by the plant. The El Salvador-based nonprofit Fundesyram, which is helping to clean the reservoir, estimates that 80% of the lake is impacted. The reservoir was constructed in the 1970s to serve the country’s major hydroelectric power plant.

The plant’s spread has been fueled by extreme pollution,

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