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Machu Picchu in 2009 (photo ©2009 Claude Vedovini)

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland and the United Nations Development Programme will work with Peru to improve weather monitoring around the ancient Incan site of Machu Picchu, following a disastrous series of 40 mudslides due to heavy rains. The rains continue and the Cuzco department, where the site is located, was declared a disaster area Monday 1 February, by the regional president, Hugo Gonzales.

An estimated 25,000 people have been left homeless and another 37,000 have lost at least part of their property in the past two weeks. Some 4,000 tourists were airlifted out of the area last week, and Machu Picchu itself will be closed for at least two months while broken rail and road links are repaired.

The tourism traffic in the area is the main industry in an otherwise poor part of the country.

Peruvian President Alan García said over the weekend that the government will guarantee the reconstruction of the region’s infrastructure, according to the Peruvian Times. The regional president Monday estimated the cost at up to $340 million.

Peru has just bought four weather stations and two hydrolic stations to better monitor the weather around Machu Picchu. It intends to buy another six later this year, the head of its National Meteorology and Hydrology Institute (Senamhi), Wilar Gamarr, told Peruvian news media Saturday 31 January.

Links to other sites: Andima, Peruvian Times, UNDP