Tourism Pains at Ankor Wat
November 22nd, 2006 Posted in Cheap Asia Travel, Destination reports, Travel industry
Tourism usually presents a good news/bad news scenario in developing countries. On the one hand it creates lots of new jobs. On the other hand, the local infrastructure is usually not up to the task of rising crowds. Add in a few corrupt government ministers and a lack of regulation and trouble comes in a hurry.
Today’s exhibit is Ankor Wat and Siem Reap, Cambodia. This article from CNN is pretty depressing: Tourism boom brings worry, hope to Siem Reap. Like Machu Picchu and other notable structures around the world, Ankor Wat is being loved to death. Some 700,000 people visited Ankor Wat last year. To say the neighboring town is overwhelmed by that figure is an understatement.
“Hotels are not legally required to have sewage treatment facilities, though larger ones do have their own plants.
‘But most guesthouses reportedly dump used water directly into the river, causing noticeable river pollution,’ [a spokesperson] said, adding that E. coli, the bacteria found in human feces, has reportedly begun seeping into local wells.
At least as threatening over the long run is the uptake of water, with unrestricted pumping from the water table underlying the area.”
So you have to drink bottled water. Which comes in plastic bottles. Where plastic isn’t recycled, so it needs to be dumped or burned. Which creates pollution that gets into the groundwater. Sigh…
