As part of its social responsibility initiative "Because We Care", Sharjah Museums Department (SMD) is hosting the exhibition "My Environment is My National Responsibility" at the Sharjah Archaeology Museum, organized by the Ministry of Environment and Water under the theme "Life in Water". The exhibition forms part of the Ministry’s educational programmes to identify the importance of water in our lives and to encourage sensible consumption. The exhibition was opened today by H. E. Dr. Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, Dr. Mariam Al Shenasi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water, and Manal Ataya, Director-General of Sharjah Museums Department
The five-day exhibition, attended by a number of government bodies and companies, is a platform to enhance awareness about the importance of water in our life by highlighting the difficulties our forefathers faced to get water, and by enhancing knowledge about today’s water resources, which are mostly generated from desalinating seawater.
The event showcases the latest technologies used in preserving water, as well as a number of successful models and promising experiments carried out by municipalities and various bodies and organizations to rationalize water consumption. The exhibition will offer visitors a chance to recognize historical irrigation systems and methods of getting to enable them to draw lessons from our forefathers’ experiences with regard to the importance of the rationalization of water consumption.
Commenting on the occasion, Manal Ataya, Director General of Sharjah Museums Department, said: "SMD considers its initiative "Because We Care" as a key topic in its general policy towards the local community. SMD’s cooperation with the Ministry of Environment in organizing this exhibition comes as part of a nationwide campaign for rationalization of water consumption and is also in line with the vital role played by museums as social organizations in educating and enlightening the community about vital issues."
"Rationalizing water consumption is among the vital topics that concern the world at large, and is an issue that must not be ignored because it is everyone’s responsibility whether they be organizations, bodies or individuals," Ataya said.
She added that SMD is always seeking to participate in such events that would help spread awareness about civilized methods in dealing with water and aid us in adapting our daily lifestyles with practical solutions suggested by research and studies in this field, so as to encourage individuals and families to adopt balanced and rational consumption behaviour and help in bringing conscious generations in the future.
H. E. Dr. Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, said:"selecting Sharjah Archaeology Museum to be the venue of this exhibition did not come out of a vacuum, since the museum demonstrates through its collections the importance of water in the lives of the UAE people for thousands of years." The exhibition will highlight the rich history of the UAE people and how the people of Sharjah managed to best adapt to their environment over the past thousand years.
Nasser Al Darmaki, Curator of the Sharjah Archaeology Museum, said: "We are extremely happy to host this exhibition and allow the visitor to know more about the historical importance of this region in its water resources and the methods of using water resources by grandfathers on the one hand, and the modern technology and development on the other one."
Al Darmaki said that visitors would be able to trace the map of archaeological sites in Sharjah which saw the early human inhabitants and to get to know that life in this region dates back 120,000 years at least. He added that visitors will view archaeological items and antiques spanning various stages in Al Buhais Mountain, Maliha, Al Mailah Mountains and Al Thuqaiba which are all situated on the Al Hassawi Plain, which lies in the west of the Hajar Mountains.
Visitors will also learn about how man used to extract precious drops of water from Aflaj and water wells, as well as about the earliest methods of agriculture and how man built the early agricultural villages in Sharjah during the Iron age(1300-300BC) and the settlement of nomadic population near lively oases.
