Experts Emphasized Need to Conserve Sindh’s Architectural Heritage Amid Disasters

News Desk

Karachi: “The interested stakeholders must support the idea of building a Disaster Risk Management unit for the cultural heritage, which would support the development of art conservation in Pakistan, and allow for the heritage sites, artworks, and museum collections that could be well-preserved, well managed and well-curated,” Sana Durani said during the conference on Disaster Management: Cultural Monument and Heritage which was held in Karachi on Saturday.

The conference was summoned in response to the recent torrential rains and flash floods in Sindh which caused significant damage to several heritage sites and monuments in many districts of Sindh including Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Dadu, Sanghar, Sukkur, Ghotki, and Thatta.

There has been substantial damage to the Rani Kot in the Jamshoro district, while KotDiji Town, the location of Moenjo-daro and home to one of Sindh’s best historical monuments, has also remained submerged.

The two-day multi-stakeholder conference was organized by the Endowment Fund Trust for the Preservation of the Heritage of Sindh;with the aim of fostering stronger collaboration in order to address the growing need for effective disaster risk management strategies to reduce potential risks, and to build institutional and community capacity to anticipate and recover from the consequences of disasters and climate change-related effects on Sindh’s cultural heritage.

Three sessions of discussions were held throughout the conference. Every session included talks on the pertinent and important problems pertaining to the monuments and museums. The speakers provided an overview of the approaches and potential remedies for better disaster risk management of the cultural heritage.

Leading experts in the field of conservation and disaster attended the conference, including ArchaeologistKamil Khan Mumtaz, Arch. and Town Planner ArifHasan, Dr.NiloferShaikh, Dr.AnilaNaeem, and Dr. Giovanna Vitelli.

Center for Development and Conservation Chairperson Dr.NiloferShaikhsaid that it is imperative to establish a disaster management cell for heritage monuments as a permanent autonomous body that includes all the stakeholders.

She added that the foundation of the disaster management cell should be built on the fundamentals of documentation, photogrammetry, preventative programmed maintenance, and conservation.

Another archaeologist Sana Durani stated her concerns for the cultural heritage fields that are currently in desperate need of a continuous, serious endeavour to create national technical skills made up of professional art conservators.

She stated that experts in art conservation may direct the implementation of crucial preventative preservation and conservation measures, cultural education, and emergency first aid for cultural heritage collections.

The role of remote sensing and rapid site recording in disaster management was highlighted by Maritime Archaeology and Heritage Institute Co-founder and Director AmerBazal.

According to Bazal, a prompt assessment of high-resolution satellite data should be included in disaster response to determine the degree of flooding.

Another speaker Nadeem Tarar underlined that the only way to move forward and take into account the complexity of heritage is to have a comprehensive understanding of the heritage at issue.