Zabid under scrutiny from UNESCO
Zabid has been given one year by UNESCO to examine what needs to be improved.
The Yemen Press website announced that Minister of Education Abdullah Awbal said that his ministry has recently received approval to give Yemen a chance to examine what needs improvement in Zabid within a year.
General Coordinator of the Zabid district in the Ministry of Culture Abdul Wahab Al-Yoosfi said there are a number of projects, such as the conservation heritage cities project, planning maps for Zabid and planning for the administration of the city, which urged UNESCO to give Yemen this chance.
Abdul Al-Allah Al-Medwahi, the district general manager of the Zabid district said UNESCO gave Yemen this opportunity because of their understanding of the current economic and political situation that for Zabid.
“We always submit reports to the concerned facilities about the difficulties we face to improve the situation in Zabid,” he said.
Al-Yoosfi said that on July 13, a team was established to study the area in Zabid and to make a project that guarantees the preparation of Zabid to remove it from the risk list. The project will start in September and will last one year.
Al-Medwahi said their main problem is the lack of a security mechanism to control the concerned facilities that should improve Zabid and care for its historical buildings.
“We demand to establish a special law for the preservation of heritage cities,” he said.
He said the most important thing to focus on is the economic rehabilitation of the Zabid district as well as providing alternative building materials, but he said until now, there are no signs for providing anything from the government.
Al-Yoosfi said the approval of Zabid is the responsibility of different governmental facilities such as the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Interior and other facilities in the district because it is a collaborative work.
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