Municipality improving Dubai Creek before Unesco bid

One of Dubai's oldest areas is undergoing development in order to qualify as a United Nations world heritage site.

The Dubai Creek as seen from the Deira side of the city. Dubai Municipality wants to have the Creek declared a Unesco World Heritage site. Antonie Robertson / The National

DUBAI // One of Dubai’s oldest areas is undergoing improvements in an attempt to qualify as a United Nations World Heritage Site.

Dubai Municipality is developing the Dubai Creek area to include more signage, lighting, infrastructure and services, and will present the redeveloped area to Unesco in January next year.

“The file we will submit will cover the whole historical area, which is Shindagha, Bur Dubai and Al Ras,” said Rashad Bukhash, the municipality’s chief executive of architectural heritage and a member of the Federal National Council.

“Last year we submitted a file with a larger area – from the beginning of Shindagha to Al Maktoum Bridge but Unesco asked us to reduce the length, so now we’ve made it smaller, up to Al Fahidi area. More information was also asked from us – we have to prove that it’s the most important area, which can be difficult.”

He spoke as the municipality on Sunday announced the fourth International Architectural Conservation Conference next year will have the theme “Sustainable Heritage: Global Vision, Local Experiences”.

After submitting the file on Saturday, a team from Unesco will visit the site in October, followed by a conference in June 2017 to discuss the bid and its result.

“A historical area qualifies after 40 years,” said Mr Bukhash. “Then it goes into evaluation and gets graded.”

Should it qualify, he said the area would receive more protection and attract more tourists.

Mr Bukhash said he hoped the law for antiquities and archaeology would be finalised at the FNC before it finishes its term in June.

“This is the third time we will discuss it at the FNC but we hope this will be the final one,” he said.

“The committees are discussing the law itself and there are very few changes but it’s very important, because with this law, we will protect every item we have in the country, and any piece of antiquity will not be taken out of the country.”

The UAE has about 3,000 archaeological sites, including 2,500 historic buildings. Dubai owns 692 historical buildings and seven archaeological sites.

“A survey done by the tourism department indicates that tourists and visitors wish to visit such areas,” said Hussain Lootah, the municipality’s director general.

“So we should highlight that this area is our past, our history, and show the existing heritage, life, trade and culture here. When we conducted such surveys and analysis, we found there was a need for this.”

Last year, more than 12 million tourists visited modern sites in Dubai, such as the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab.

“A lot of visitors come for cultural and historical tourism,” said Mr Bukhash. “So it’s important to have this balance in Dubai and, by 2020, we want to reach 20 million visitors for historic places.”

Next year’s conference, from February 8-10, will highlight the need to include advances in sustainability when dealing with historical areas. The municipality expects to receive more than 300 papers on best practices for sustainable heritage.

“All papers will be given to more than 30 professors in conservation around the world for review,” he said.

“The deadline for abstracts submission is March 31, and September 1 for full-length papers.”