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Sarkozy vows help for stricken Canal du Midi

by Reuters
Wednesday, 27 July 2011 14:55 GMT

* Killer fungus devastating thousands of plane trees

* Locals fear site could lose U.N. World Heritage status

By Nicolas Fichot

TOULOUSE, France, July 27 (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to save the Canal du Midi in southern France, where a killer fungus is devouring thousands of trees that line the banks of the waterway classified by the United Nations as a world treasure.

Built in the 17th century to connect the city of Toulouse to the Mediterranean, the 240-kilometre (150 mile) Canal du Midi is synonymous for millions of tourists with lazy waterside holidays, spent beneath the dappled green canopies that line the canal's banks.

To stem the spread of a virulent canker stain fungus called Ceratocystis Platani, the French VNF waterways authority plans to rip out as many as 42,000 plane trees by 2026.

Experts say that replacing them will cost 200 million euros (${esc.dollar}290 million) and local officials fear that without moving fast the canal will be stripped of its status as a world-class feat of engineering by the U.N. cultural heritage agency, UNESCO.

"A delisting by UNESCO as a consequence of natural causes is unthinkable. It's our duty to take action," VNF director Jacques Noisette told Reuters.

Visiting France's Mediterranean coast on Tuesday, President Nicolas Sarkozy called the matter "a great tragedy" and said he had asked his government to look for a solution, though he did not say if he would provide money to help what he described as an exceptional part of France's heritage.

Constructed between 1666 and 1681 by engineer Pierre-Paul Riquet, the Canal du Midi is considered a model of hydraulic technology that was one of the drivers of the industrial revolution over the 18th and 19th centuries.

The canal, which created the first water transport link between France's Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, was included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.

Whatever the French authorities do, it will take years to replace the leafy splendour of the old plane trees that line the Canal du Midi's banks and which millions of tourists associate with the south of France.

"Admittedly, the new trees will be smaller for a bit, but if the work is carried out in stages, tourists won't notice it so much," said Pascal Lebegue, a director at Crown Blue Line, a company that rents out canal cruise boats to holidaymakers. (Writing by Vicky Buffery; Editing by Brian Love and Rosalind Russell) (${esc.dollar}1=.6884 Euro)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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