Moenjodaro could disappear in 20 years: Experts

Summer temperatures, winter frosts, torrential monsoon rains and humid air likely to wipe the ruins away.

One of the oldest archaeological sites in Pakistan and the world's only surviving Bronze Age metropolis, Moen Jo Daro could disappear in 20 years in the absence of an urgent rescue plan, The Telegraph reported on Sunday.

Poor planning on the government's part, public indifference and lack of tourism infrastructure has meant that the world's oldest planned urban landscape could be corroded to dust.

While international experts and Pakistani officials met last week in Karachi to come up with ways to save the site, the need for a restoration plan is immediate, the report stated.

Jawad Aziz, a Unesco heritage expert, said the need for action is vital.

“I’ve visited the site and seen the bricks,” he said. “They will be crumbling down, so it’s very urgent.”

According to the report, "Summer temperatures of 51c, winter frosts, torrential monsoon rains and humid air all combine to leave the sun-dried clay bricks with a dusting of salt crystals that dries them out and sucks them to dust."

Officials said that even though preservation work has been going on since the first major excavation in 1924 and was intensified when Moen Jo Daro was made a World Heritage Site, the initiative suffered from an unsteady flow of funds.

Dr Asma Ibrahim who is a leading Pakistani archaeologist told The Telegraph, "there is no department with expertise, no decisions taken for the last two year. The way things are going, it will survive maybe only another 20 years.”