Karachi: The Sindh government has joined hands with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to prepare a disaster reduction plan to protect the world-famous archeological site of Mohenjo Daro in the province against any future extreme weather event.
The decision to this effect was reached as Sindh Culture Minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, and provincial officials, held talks with a Unesco delegation led by its expert in architechtural conservation, Rand Eppich.
The delegation members informed Shah that modern conservation methods were required to be adopted to protect Mohenjo Daro in view of the damage sustained by the heritage site due to heavy rains and floods last year.
They suggested to the minister to develop comprehensive multimedia and digital filming record of Mohenojo Daro and details of the conservation work should also be digitally preserved.
They further recommended to the provincial authorities conduct a comparative study of Mohenjo Daro and other archaeological sites in the region of the same era.
The delegation briefed the minister that Unesco’s expert in heritage conservation, Thierry Joffroy, had completed the survey of Mohejo Daro to assess the damage caused by rains and floods. Joffroy will soon present his assessment report to the relevant officials at the UN headquarters.
They said that a workshop had been organised keeping in view the recommendations contained in the report to train the local officials to properly protect the heritage site from heavy rains by building a drainage system and taking other precautions against the issue of soil salinity.
The minister told the delegation that later in the year an international conference would be held in Paris in collaboration with Unesco for the centennial celebration of the discovery of Mohenjo Daro.
He said the Sindh government had also approved a development scheme to build a research centre at Mohejo Daro. He said the proposed centre would be of world-class standards but its building would match with other ancient architectures at the site.
He said the centre would serve as the platform to compile at one place all the research work on Mohejo Daro carried out in the past 100 years.
