Yearly visits to Machu Picchu -- Peru's famed Inca citadel -- have more than doubled since 1998 to 800,000 tourists, prompting UNESCO to consider adding the jungle-shrouded ruins to its list of endangered World Heritage sites.
UNESCO officials will discuss Machu Picchu's fate this week at a World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec City that was called to determine which of the world's cultural treasures should be added to its list — and which of those already included there are now threatened.
UNESCO committee spokesman Roni Amelan declined to confirm that Machu Picchu, which was named a World Heritage Site in 1983, would be classified as endangered, but said "it's a possibility."
Unregulated growth, including a boom in hotel and restaurant construction in the nearby mountain town of Aguas Calientes, is putting pressure on erosion-prone riverbanks and could undermine the site, the report said.
The village lacks adequate sanitation and Peru's government has done little to address landslide concerns on the winding, mud thoroughfare that leads to the citadel, according to the report. Officials also have no way to detect fires in the stone citadel or its heavily wooded environs, the report said.
Residents in the nearby city of Cuzco, an ancient Inca capital, burned tires and blocked roads to protest state plans to extend private development near the site earlier this year.
But park officials note that while there may be room for improvement in Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu itself is intact. Archaeologist Piedad Champi, who oversees conservation efforts, noted that UNESCO praised the monuments' preservation just last year.
Source:Xinhua
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