Culture

1400 Historical Heritages At Risk of Devastation

Sunday May 25, 2014
Kabul (BNA) Despite lack of resources, the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) has strived to renovate the cultural and historic monuments of the country. But still majority of our cultural heritages are at risk of devastation in various provinces.
According to statistics, up to 1400 historic monuments are in danger to collapse. “As you have heard through media, more than 90 percent of the historical monuments are at risk of devastation, according to statistics of the Ministry of Information and Culture, more than 3,000 monuments are in danger across Afghanistan, since 2001, MoIC is trying to make sure renovation of our cultural heritages, so far we have registered up to 1600 or 1800 cultural assets while before 2001, even 20 cultural assets weren’t registered, but today we have registered more than 1800 monuments,” deputy of minister of information and culture for cultural affairs Sayed Musadiq Khalili said.
“When we say that 1400 cultural heritages are at risk, it doesn’t mean that the Ministry of Information and Culture has not paid concentration on them in the past several years, since 2001, we have undertaken major programs to renovate cultural assets, since than we have renovated several ancient monuments, gardens, shrines of great personalities and forts including Herat Ekhtiaruddin fort, Masjid-e-Jami of Herat, Jam Minaret, Bamian Buddha statues,” Khalili said. “MoIC is committed to focus on renovation of 1400 cultural ancient monuments; we hope that our great nation and our business community will support us to rehabilitate these sites.” “Afghanistan is a historic country and it has witnessed several cultures and civilizations, each civilizations have left a number of signs and indications in the shape of cultural heritages, today majority of these monuments require renovation in some provinces, because our cultural assets have suffered during wars, weather and climate change have also posed threats to them, in some areas people do not take care of these assets, because they have not sufficient knowledge about the importance of these assets and they destroy them and use their materials in reconstruction,” Khalili further stated.
“Excellency the Minister of Information and Culture has always raised the issue in his meetings with responsible institutions, we have demanded media, business community, domestic and international institutions to support the Ministry of Information and Culture in renovating these sites so that we are able to protect our cultural treasures,” Khalili added. The deputy Minister of Information and Culture said that the Ministry has always shared its concerns about the threats which undermine sustainability of cultural heritages with various world countries including the US, Japan, Italia, UNESCO, India, Czech Republic, Germany, Norway and succeeded to seek their cooperation in renovating Ekhtiaruddin Fort in Herat, cultural assets of Bamian province, Taimor Shah shrine in Kabul and a number of other monuments.
He said that the contribution of people in preserving our cultural legacy and identity is very vital and our businessmen must help the ministry of ensure rehabilitation and renovation of the cultural sites. The Ministry of Information and Culture has undertaken a number of public awareness campaigns through media and its provincial headquarters to provide information and awareness about the significance of cultural heritages in the country. In some extents these programs and campaigns have been fruitful.

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button