Business & Labor
Heritage Groups Inventory Tsunami Damage to Cultural Sites
(archrecord.construction.com - 01/07/05)
By James
Murdock
Officials with preservation and world
heritage groups are beginning to take stock of cultural sites
in Southeast Asia and western Africa damaged or destroyed
by last month’s tsunami. One organization, the World
Monuments Fund (WMF), which provides financial assistance
to preserve cultural sites worldwide, is attempting to contact
its project managers throughout the affected region: first
to determine if they are alive, then to determine the fate
of their projects.
"The human element is our first
priority, of course, but in connection with that is the built
environment that these people enjoyed--institutions and monuments.
That heritage is something to be looked at soon after the
human element," says John Stubbs, vice president of field
programs with the WMF.
While several important cultural sites
could be destroyed (see list, bottom), not all the news is
bad: "I’ve actually heard a lot of good news and
many sites that weren’t damaged," says WMF program
manager Michelle Berenfeld. Among the undamaged WMF projects
is Omo Hada, an 18th century colonial house on the Indonesian
island of Nias, Berenfeld said. A WMF site in Malacca, Malaysia,
is also undamaged.
Berenfeld has also received word from
colleagues at Goa University, in India, that the Sun Temple
of Koranak, a 13th century temple on the Bay of Bengal in
India, sustained only minor damage from the tsunami.
As the WMF and other cultural groups
like UNESCO (United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural
Organization) begin inventorying sites throughout the disaster
area, they are also turning their attention to the rebuilding
effort. Stubbs says that the WMF can act as a clearinghouse
for information, helping to connect cultural ministries in
southeast Asian nations with governments elsewhere that have
experience rebuilding after natural disasters and warfare.
"Sadly, WMF has become quite expert
in dealing with post-disaster scenarios like the Balkans,
Iraq and Iran," Stubbs observes. "It’s a matter
of transferring information that’s already been developed
in one part of the world to another part of the world."
Stubbs adds that, on a project by project
basis in the tsunami disaster area, the WMF will address issue
of "preventative conservation" to fortify surviving
cultural sites against damage from future natural disasters.
"History tells us what to do with these sites."
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