Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com
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Written By: Huda al-Kibsi
Article Date: May 5, 2007 - 2:12:55 PM
UNESCO has given Yemeni authorities two more years—a last chance—before it begins procedures to remove the city of Zabid from UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It issued the threat as the government has failed to prevent human activity from changing the historical character of the monuments and houses in these areas.
This decision came after a report submitted by a team from the UNESCO World Heritage Center which arrived in Yemen on the 17th of January, said Mohammed al-Qadasi, general secretary of the National Committee of UNESCO. “The team came to examine the efforts made to rehabilitate the city and preserve the components of its heritage since it was listed among endangered world heritage sites in 2000. The report found that the historical monuments are falling into complete ruin because of the neglect and indifference from the government and local authorities to maintain this historical city.
“Such a decision is not good for Yemen. It is a threat and cannot be applied easily, but authorities and people should feel the danger of removing the city from the list and start to seriously take care of this city,” he said. UNESCO wants this warning to reach the decision makers in the government. The report recommended many things including the government’s commitment to do what the General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities recommends, specifically, removing the distortions from the ancient buildings, and taking care of this wonderful city, he said.
UNESCO has included Yemeni cities like Old Sana’a, Shibam Hadhramout, and Zabid on its World Heritage List. This means that as world heritage sites, these cities are to be protected from change and modern affectations such as using modern building materials like cement and aluminum on the ancient buildings of these cites. “For example, there are some citizens who built a new Tairamana (a sitting room built on the top of the house and usually used to chew qat in) using new building materials on a house that is more than 300 years old, without regard for the house’s protected status. Things like this led UNESCO to take its decision,” al-Qadasi said.
We are trying our best by contacting the authorities in the government, said Dr. Abdullah Issa, head of GOPHYC. “We cannot do this alone and must work together. We need bodies that have authority over these people and can control their behavior and take a serious position.” On the other side, people of the neighborhood surrounding the Great Mosque in Old Sana’a still suffer and complain from the slow disintegration of their houses due to the humidity, leakage of sewage, and ignorance of local officials.
The Yemen Observer visited some of these houses like Yahya Asdah's, and witnessed firsthand the disintegration of their houses. “We have been grappling with this problem for five years, waiting for our houses to fall on us,” said Asdah’s wife. “A Third of our house is closed because it has completely disintegrated and no one can live in it. We are trying our best to renovate our house, but each room we fix begins falling apart.
“When the rain comes or when we make any strong movements, we feel that the house will surely fall. The Authority comes to test the damage, and they make more destruction with their diggings. One time, they dug under and around the gate of the house and then they left it for the rain to collect in and seep under the house. Neighbors that time told us that we should abandon the house, but we did not because we do not have another place to go.” Cracks in the houses are wide enough for a person to put his hand in. They stretch from the roof to the ground sometimes. There are families who left their houses like al-Dram and al-Khawlani because their houses could not bear them any longer. Other families have left their houses, but had to return because they could not find places that suit their financial situation.
Issa said that he attended a meeting between the Ministry of Culture and the Mayor of Sana’a Mayor last Monday, in which they agreed that Capital Secretariat would pay for people to rent other houses, while the Ministry of Culture would renovate the old houses. YR 5 million was given to the Capital Secretariat and YR 20 million to the Ministry of Culture to start working on this issue. The first step is to give each family YR 50,000 each month to leave the houses and rent others, said Mohammed al-Amri, the Capital Secretariat deputy for Financial and Administrative Affairs. “People are refusing to leave their houses saying that this amount is not enough or some of them have problems with legacy with some houses being divided between families.
We offered them YR 300,000 to leave the houses for six months until the Ministry of Culture could finish renovating them, but they refused. We are still trying and there is one family that accepted, the al-Khawlani family, and we will start working on this house on Saturday,” he said. Old Sana’a of more than 3,000 years old and was included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1982. “UNESCO is very proud of these Yemeni cities, but Old Sana’a needs a lot of attention and the government must speed up the procedures it is working on,” he said.