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Northern China smog worsens
May 17, 2017
Air pollution in a key Chinese region surrounding Beijing worsened in
the first four months of this year, despite tough new campaigns to enforce
green regulations and punish offenders.
Cultural Heritage & Environment
Government’s achievements in
cultural heritage sector remarkable
Saving Pakistan’s lost
city of Mohenjo Daro
The center of a powerful ancient civilization, Mohenjo Daro was one of the
world’s earliest cities — a Bronze Age
metropolis boasting flush toilets and a
water and waste system to rival many
in modern Pakistan.
Tous revival calls for unified management
Cultural Heritage Desk
F
AFP
Some 5,000 years on archeologists
believe the ruins could unlock the secrets of the Indus Valley people, who
flourished around 3,000 BCE in what
is now India and Pakistan before mysteriously disappearing, phys.org wrote.
But they warn, if nothing is done to
protect the ruins — already neglected
and worn by time — it will fade to dust
and obscurity, never taking its rightful
place in history.
“Everybody knows Egypt, nobody
knows Mohenjo Daro, this has to be
changed,” said Michael Jansen, a German researcher working at the sunbaked site on the banks of Indus River
in Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province.
Jansen is at the forefront of a new effort to promote the site internationally
while finding ways to protect what is
left.
In summer temperatures can soar
above 46°C (115°F). “There is enormous thermo-stress,” said Jansen,
adding that salt from the underground
water table is also damaging the ruins.
ifty museums have been established by
the private sector during the tenure of current government which took office in August 2013, said the deputy head of Iran Cultural
Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.
Speaking at a ceremony to commemorate the
great Iranian epic poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi in
Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province, Mohammad-Hassan Talebian further said that current
government used cultural diplomacy for the first
time to repatriate Iran’s historical assets.
It also cooperated with Armenia and Iraq on
cultural commonalities and Iranian monuments
outside the country’s borders, he said.
In addition, joint dossiers were created for
registering Norouz (Iranian New Year), Lavash
(flat bread), the musical instrument kamancheh
and Chogan (ancient Iranian polo).
He cited the registration of five Iranian relics
on the list of tangible cultural heritage and two
others on the list of intangible cultural heritage
as the other achievements of incumbent administration.
Talebian said revival of historical city of Tous
calls for unified management of administrative
bodies.
He added that given its cultural and historical
potentials, Tous has been placed on UNESCO’s
preliminary list for registration on the World
Heritage List.
Revival of Tous is in line with commemorating the exalted status of Ferdowsi, he said.
He continued that Tous has a strategic council. The plan for organizing the historical city of
Tous, which stretches from Kashfroud to Ferdowsi’s Mausoleum, has been drawn up. It is
ready to be ceded to investors, he added.
t
tavaana.org
Kenya’s drought: Response must be sustainable, not piecemeal
UNICEF
F
Food
security in Kenya has deteriorated signnificantly since the end of 2016. UNICEF
reported a significant increase in severe
re
aacute malnutrition. Nearly 110,000 childdren under-five need treatment — up from
775,300 in August 2016.
Waterholes and rivers have dried up,
leading to widespread crop failure and
le
livestock depletion. At the height of the
li
ddrought, surface water in most counties
hhad either dried up or its level dramatically
reduced IPS reported.
Consequently, within a year, the price of
maize flour rose by 31 percent, milk by 12
and sugar by 21 percent. These food price
increases have driven inflation up from
9.04 percent in February to 11.48 percent
in April. Many families are making do with
just one meal a day.
Conditions are dire in half of Kenya’s
47 counties. Livestock and milk production has declined, adversely affecting food
consumption levels for communities, particularly women and children.
Malnutrition is widespread among children. In the hardest-hit counties of Turkana,
Marsabit and Mandera, a third of children
under five are acutely malnourished — double the emergency threshold. High malnutrition, when combined with an outbreak
of cholera or measles, can lead to a surge in
deaths among children and other vulnerable
groups.