Most towers in the My Son sanctuary, a world cultural heritage site incentral Quang Nam Province , are in danger of collapse, anofficial said.

“Only three towers out of 20 are stillintact, the others having seriously deteriorated,” said Nguyen CongKhiet, deputy head of the My Son Management Board.

Headded that inspections were carried out annually to assess the towers’state, emphasising that flooding in October, which inundated the towersby up to 2m, had further worsened the situation by weakeningfoundations.

“After the floods, authorities could not uproot grass due to brick walls being damp and collapsible.”

Local media reported that towers A1 and A3 were slanting while wall sections of towers B2, B3, and B4 were showing cracks.

Besides the impacts of time, war and natural disasters, the frequentoverload of visitors to the site (usually between 9-12am) has alsoaffected the towers, Khiet added.

The My Son towerscomplex in Duy Xuyen district was recognised as a World CulturalHeritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO) in 1999.

In 2011, the site received more than 247,000 visitors.

Huynh Tan Lap, another board official, said that while 50 percent ofvisitor fees were used for restoration purposes, 3 billion VND (138,000USD) out of the total 6 billion VND collected in 2010 provedinsufficient.

Lap said that in August this year, theprovincial authority decided to funnel more than 9 billion VND (418,000USD) into restoring tower E7.

Currently, the third phaseof co-operation between UNESCO and Italy to help restore towers ingroup G are underway. It is reported that the Italian Government willprovide 420,000 euros (548,000 USD) towards the project in 2012.

Khiet said that the board decided to utilise a tram system this monthin efforts to limit the number of tourist cars at the site. The boardadditionally proposed the increase of visitor fees to add to restorationfunds./.