November 05, 2024 19:14 (IST)
Follow us:
Chile: UN offers support after devastating fires in Valparaiso
New York, Apr 16 (IBNS): The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Tuesday voiced deep concern over the destruction caused by fires that have been raging around Valparaiso and pledged to help safeguard the Chilean city's historic sites.
The fires that began over the weekend have reportedly killed 13 people, consumed 2,150 acres and burned 2,000 homes across the coastal city.
Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General, expressed her condolences to the people of Chile over the tragic loss of lives in Valparaíso, and promised the agency’s support in protecting the city’s Historic Quarter, which is inscribed on the World Heritage List.
“UNESCO stands ready to help Chile mitigate the potential impact of the fires and conduct restoration activities on the Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso,” she said in a news release.
“We are determined to do all in our power to preserve this beautiful and vibrant site which hearkens back to an important period in the history of Chile and its cultural and economic development in the 19th century.”
Bokova also promised continued support from UNESCO for the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, a World Heritage site 45 kilometres east of the city of Iquique, which was hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.
UNESCO’s Office in the capital, Santiago, has been working closely with the Chilean authorities in monitoring the situation in Valparaíso. Located on central Chile’s Pacific coast, the Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso represents an extraordinary example of industrial-age heritage associated with the international sea trade of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Further north, the earthquake and aftershocks that have been rocking the area around Iquique could further undermine the already vulnerable structures of the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005 when the property was also placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The desert site bears witness to the industrial heritage and culture developed by the thousands of people who lived and worked in the region’s 200 saltpeter works. The site constitutes an exceptional testimony to technological progress and global exchanges during the industrial era and it bears witness to the distinctive communal Pampinos culture that developed in company towns in the region at that time.
(The city of Valparaiso, before the devastating fires. Photo: UNESCO/F. Bandarin)
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Latest Headlines
Pakistan: Two Chinese nationals hurt in shooting incident in Karachi Tue, Nov 05 2024
USA: Meet 24-year-old Chea who shucks oysters at parties now after she was laid off from tech firm where she worked as data analytics engineer Tue, Nov 05 2024
USA: Man arrested over charges of using weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy power plant Tue, Nov 05 2024
Pakistan State Oil grapples with PKR 800 billion receivables, threatening national energy stability Tue, Nov 05 2024
North Korea fires multiple short-range ballistic missiles as US prepares for presidential polls Tue, Nov 05 2024
US presidential election: Donald Trump ahead of Kamala Harris in swing states, poll survey predicts Mon, Nov 04 2024