KUWAIT: Experts conduct a survey of submerged relics off Failaka island. - KUNA

KUWAIT: The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) is currently cooperating with a team of Polish experts to locate and chronicle relics submerged in Kuwait's territorial waters, the council said in a statement on Friday. The council indicated that the work is in line with the Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, adopted on November 2, 2001, by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The convention is intended to protect "all traces of human existence having a cultural, historical or archaeological character" which have been under water for over 100 years. This extends to the protection of shipwrecks, sunken cities, prehistoric art work, treasures that may be looted, sacrificial and burial sites, and old ports that cover the oceans' floors. NCCAL's statement indicated that the task is according to Law 10/2017, approving the Paris convention for protecting the submerged treasures-published by the official gazette on May 7, 2017.

Kuwait has little experience with respect of exploring, preserving and salvaging such relics from the seabed, thus the task warrants training Kuwaiti archeologists on diving and dealing with the antiquities deep in the waters. Moreover, competent authorities need to survey the sea depths, drawing maps of locations concealing such treasures and coordinating with other authorities to minimize any negative impact on the marine life. According to the Amiri Decree 11/1960, any project in the marine environment requires advance reference to the NCCAL before execution. - KUNA