Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

/ARTS WEEKLY/ ARCHAEOLOGY-MEXICO: World Heritage Site in Danger of Disappearing

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Nov 30 2004 (IPS) - Along the canals of Xochimilco in the Mexican capital, throngs of tourists fill the colourfully decorated gondolas known as trajineros, admiring the scenery, listening to mariachi bands, eating tacos and buying crafts.

But this picturesque and historic spot is becoming increasingly endangered by pollution, erosion and the relentless onslaught of uncontrolled population growth.

Xochimilco, known as the “Venice of the New World”, is deteriorating at such a rapid pace that UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) is threatening to remove it from its list of World Heritage Sites, which it was added to in 1987.

Roughly 20 kilometres south of downtown Mexico City, Xochimilco, which means “place where the flowers grow” in the indigenous Aztec language of Nahuatl,is the last surviving vestige of a pre-Hispanic form of human settlement that is being slowly taken over by urban sprawl.

The canals run between artificially created islands called chinampas that were built over 500 years ago in what was once the middle of a lake. The site now covers an area of roughly 25 square kilometres, 375 less than its original size, but uncontrolled human settlement and pollution could destroy it altogether.

The problems in Xochimilco “didn’t start yesterday, or last year. What we are seeing now is the sum result of many, many years of negligence,” Enrique Cifuentes, a researcher from the state-run National Public Health Institute,told IPS.

In addition to the canals and chinampas, Xochimilco also encompasses streets and avenues in areas that were once covered by large lagoons. It is home to 370,000 inhabitants, half of whom are poor.

The local population faces a serious dearth of services like running water and drainage systems, because many live in zones that are officially designated as ecological reserves, where municipal ordinances prohibit construction.

Over the last 20 years, waves of new settlers have moved into the area in violation of official regulations, building on new “land” created by blocking off and filling in canals with soil, rocks and garbage.

Ciro Caraballo, a UNESCO specialist, was sent to Mexico to help with the efforts to salvage what is left of Xochimilco. On Nov. 19, the U.N. agency issued an urgent call for a halt to the continued encroachment of urban sprawl and the removal of illegally constructed housing, as a way of preventing even further damage.

The municipal authorities, however, responded that it would be difficult to evict the “squatters” and it would be better to provide them with urban services and declare their settlements legal.

Once this step has been taken, every effort will be made to stop new squatters from moving in, and a plan will be developed in conjunction with UNESCO to more effectively safeguard and protect Xochimilco, they said.

Numerous studies have revealed that the water surrounding the chinampas and canals is heavily polluted with human waste and garbage, and the site is sinking 18 centimetres a year.

Urban planners have pointed out that preserving the indigenous legacy of the chinampas will be an extremely challenging task in the face of urban expansion.

In the last 25 years, Mexico City has doubled in size, and in the coming years, more space will be needed to house millions more people as the city continues to grow.

Devised by the indigenous inhabitants of Mexico, the artificial islands called chinampas were built up with land dredged from lake bottoms and compacted with plants and trees planted along their perimeters. A wide range of vegetables and flowers are grown on the islands, with yields up to eight times greater than in other areas.

This is part of what tourists see when they visit Xochimilco. But in the not-too-distant future, there may no longer be canals and chinampas, “because the deterioration is progressing rapidly,” said Cifuentes, who works in the area.

Local inhabitants have reported that real estate development companies are illegally filling in canals with garbage and rocks with the intent of building new housing.

Much of modern-day Mexico City and its outskirts, now home to some 20 million people, was a lake-dotted area inhabited by a highly advanced culture, the Aztecs. The city was actually built on the ruins of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, destroyed by the Spanish “conquistadors”.

The Europeans undertook major engineering projects to drain the area of water and build on it. As a result, Xochimilco is the only remaining testament to “the efforts of the Aztec people to build a habitat in the midst of an unfavourable environment,” as UNESCO explained in 1987 when adding the site to its World Heritage List.

And unless the necessary measures are adopted soon, Xochimilco’s legacy will be lost to all humankind forever.