Emergency Response To Protection Jam Minaret Afghanistan

September 10, 2024 BRD-AF 0 Comments

BRD successfully delivered emergency response to protect Jam Minaret, a global UNESCO culture heritage site, located in hard to reach valley in Ghore province of Afghanistan. The site was affected by the recent flush flood, which has what damaged the existing protection and put the site in high risk of collops. The emergency response was fully coordinated with the relevant de-facto authorities and stakeholders as well as with the full engagement of the relevant local communities. BRD would like to thanks UNESCO for the financial contribution which enable BRD for the delivery of the response and stabilising this important culture heritage site.

1. Background

The Minaret of Jam stands as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in western Afghanistan. The site located in the remote Shahrak District of Ghor Province, it lies next to the Hari River. The recent devastating flush flood, filling the riverbeds of the Jam Rud with huge sediment caused the change in the direction of water towards the base protection of Minaret and then over flowed on the top of the protection wall, hit the bottom foundation of the Minaret, which put the site in a high risk of further damage. In response to the urgent needs of protection of the site from further damage by the floods, BRD through financial support from UNESCO, in collaboration with the local authorities and communitas, delivered an emergency response for mitigating the immediate risk to the site, by the removal of the sediment settled in the riverbed in the result of flush flood, to streamline and normalize the flow of water in the riverbed without causing any damage to the protection surrounding the Minaret.

2. Project Objectives

To provide urgent response to protect/stabilize the culture heritage site and mitigate the risk from further damage/collops through implementing of primary urgent protection measure to ensure the site from further damage in event of future flooding disaster.
To clean Jam Rud reiver bed by the removing the sediment felled by the recent flood and strengthen base protection of the site.
To Implement the urgent measure in full coordination and communication with the Ministry of Culture of Information, Local authorities and relevant communities to mobilize their fully support for this urgent response.

3. Project Achievement

BRD in collaboration with UNESCO, and coordination with line department, local community and delivered timely emergency response mitigated the immediate risk of further damage to the Jam Minaret site in the event of future flooding disaster. The detailed description of the activities carried out under the project are outline as bellow:

4. Community Engagement

The community surrounding the sites has been fully engaged in the project activities and also learning from their experience during the protection work as well. They were part of the hand over process after completion of the project.

5. Conclusion and Recommendation

The project has served as primary response to protect the site from further damage, in the event of future flooding disasters, which also fulfilled the. community and local authority demand for such action, which is highly appreciated by the local community and authorities.

However, in longer term for full mitigation of the risk and sustainable protection of the site from frequent disasters, there is need further actions. Following is the follow up actions points recommended by BRD:

There is need for strengthening the weak part of the existing protection of the site and also parts which has not covered by the past protection in order to ensure the flooding do not enter and affect the site.
To retain the mud/sediment and redirect flows, stabilize slopes, structural measures such as construction of small check dams in the upper part of the Jam Rud valley, will prevent the risk of damage of the site by the flooding and also will also reserve the water for the irrigation and help increase the production of agriculture products.

Considering the hard-to-reach location of the Jam Minaret site, preparedness plan, consisting of material resources and expertise to be created at the local level, for delivering first aid both at the community level and also provincial level to ensure timely response for mitigation of any risk in case any measure diester.
Access road connecting the site with the provincial capital should be keep open and accessible all the time through repairing and also strengthening the protection of the areas, affected by flooding, which is the key both for future interventions for timely delivery of materials and machinery, as well as for touristic activities.

There need to create a basic logistics facilities in the site which will encourage more tourist to visit and is the key for the local economic development in the areas.

Awareness raising and education of local communities in regard to culture heritage, their rolls and basic skills and emergency response and risk reduction of the site will be the key for sensitizing local communities to actively engaged in the protection of the site.