World Heritage Site - the aflaj of Oman
I must express a quiet note of satisfaction in that the relevant World Heritage website's page about Oman provides a link to my photos of aflaj in the newsbriefsoman gallery.
The announcement that Oman's aflaj system had joined Unesco's other 830 global world heritage sites came on the 13th of July this year, although the bid had been long in the running. Oman held a conference as long ago as May 2002 to gain international support for the recommendation. The International Conference on the Development and Management of Water Conveyance Systems (aflaj) was held under the auspices of Dr Khamis bin Mubarak Al Alawi, the then minister of regional municipalities, environment and water resources and was attended by "ministers, undersecretaries, officials from brotherly and friendly countries and representatives of participating regional and international organisations." Times of Oman, 20th May 2002.
I suspect that efforts to give Omani aflaj World Heritage status began long before that, during the incumbency of the now defunct Ministry of Water Resources, since the World Heritage inscription refers to the Ministry of Water Resources, and the maps defining the area of each falaj were produced in the GIS unit of the ministry between 1998 to 2000.
More recently, in April 2005, a former boss of mine raised the issue once more at a meeting in Russia to revise the executive regulations of the World Heritage Pact.
The wheels of bureaucracy grind exceeding slow.
Just five of Oman's 3,000 aflaj have been nominated, of which four are dawoodi (daoudi) aflaj, and one is aini. See my notes in an earlier entry for definitions. They are:
- Falaj Al-Khatmeen (dawoodi) - Birkat al Mauz
- Falaj Al-Malki (dawoodi) - Izki
- Falaj Daris (dawoodi) - Nizwa
- Falaj Al-Jeela (aini) - Sur
- Falaj Al-Muyassar (dawoodi) - Rustaq
(Gulf News, 11th December 2006, quotes Zahir Bin Khalil Al Sulaimani, Director General of Water Resources Affairs in MRMEWR, as saying that "currently 4,112 aflaj exist in Oman with an annual flow of 680 million cubic metres of water.")
The summary of the inscription states that these particular aflaj have been selected because they preserve the integrity of the entire falaj water management system, and also because they are subject to control by the Ministry of (Regional Municipalities, Environment and) Water Resources. That means that they remain a working, and viable water supply, despite drops in the groundwater table or supply of water to the spring in the case of Falaj Al-Jeela. Each falaj system preserves a network of watch towers to defend the community water supply as well as other buildings listed in association with the aflaj such as mosques, houses, sundials, and water auction buildings.
The announcement that Oman's aflaj system had joined Unesco's other 830 global world heritage sites came on the 13th of July this year, although the bid had been long in the running. Oman held a conference as long ago as May 2002 to gain international support for the recommendation. The International Conference on the Development and Management of Water Conveyance Systems (aflaj) was held under the auspices of Dr Khamis bin Mubarak Al Alawi, the then minister of regional municipalities, environment and water resources and was attended by "ministers, undersecretaries, officials from brotherly and friendly countries and representatives of participating regional and international organisations." Times of Oman, 20th May 2002.
I suspect that efforts to give Omani aflaj World Heritage status began long before that, during the incumbency of the now defunct Ministry of Water Resources, since the World Heritage inscription refers to the Ministry of Water Resources, and the maps defining the area of each falaj were produced in the GIS unit of the ministry between 1998 to 2000.
More recently, in April 2005, a former boss of mine raised the issue once more at a meeting in Russia to revise the executive regulations of the World Heritage Pact.
The wheels of bureaucracy grind exceeding slow.
Just five of Oman's 3,000 aflaj have been nominated, of which four are dawoodi (daoudi) aflaj, and one is aini. See my notes in an earlier entry for definitions. They are:
- Falaj Al-Khatmeen (dawoodi) - Birkat al Mauz
- Falaj Al-Malki (dawoodi) - Izki
- Falaj Daris (dawoodi) - Nizwa
- Falaj Al-Jeela (aini) - Sur
- Falaj Al-Muyassar (dawoodi) - Rustaq
(Gulf News, 11th December 2006, quotes Zahir Bin Khalil Al Sulaimani, Director General of Water Resources Affairs in MRMEWR, as saying that "currently 4,112 aflaj exist in Oman with an annual flow of 680 million cubic metres of water.")
The summary of the inscription states that these particular aflaj have been selected because they preserve the integrity of the entire falaj water management system, and also because they are subject to control by the Ministry of (Regional Municipalities, Environment and) Water Resources. That means that they remain a working, and viable water supply, despite drops in the groundwater table or supply of water to the spring in the case of Falaj Al-Jeela. Each falaj system preserves a network of watch towers to defend the community water supply as well as other buildings listed in association with the aflaj such as mosques, houses, sundials, and water auction buildings.
