Managing human waste on Aconcagua

AGUSTINA BARROS; CATHERINE PICKERING

Mountaineering tourism

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015; p. 244 - 249

Environmental impacts and risks to human health arise from the improper disposalof human waste in mountainous areas. The challenges in dealing with thisissue are explored here by focusing on how human waste from hikers and mountaineers is dealt with around the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere,Mt Aconcagua (6,962 m) in the Argentinean Andes. Mt Aconcagua and its surroundedprotected area, Aconcagua Provincial Park (710 km2, 69°56?W, 32°39?S), is a popular destination for mountaineering and hiking. It was declared a Category II IUCN protected area in 1983 to conserve glaciers, rivers and glacier lakes, alpine ecosystems and archaeological sites (Barros et al. 2013). Aconcagua is also the main water catchment for the Mendoza river which provides water for the direct use of over one million people and for irrigating important agricultural areas.