Tequendama is a famous waterfall only an hour south of downtown Bogotá. It is located in the highlands of the municipality of Soacha. It is absolutely beautiful, standing 433 feet in height, but it is also completely contaminated. It is also said to be haunted because many of the indigenous group that inhabited this area during Spanish colonization, the Muiscas, decided to jump off the waterfall to avoid being enslaved. According to Colombian myth, when they jumped over the waterfall, they transformed into eagles and flew to freedom.
The Bogotá River, which feeds the Tequendama waterfall, is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. It is so contaminated that the entire area surrounding it is infamous for having a terrible odor. The problem is, Bogotá is a city of eight million people, and 80% of the city's untreated sewage and wastewater is pumped directly into the river because there are not currently facilities to treat the amount of wastewater the city produces.
