JEDDAH, 15 July 2007 — Prince Sultan bin Salman, secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT), will inaugurate today the first national campaign for cleaning up Jeddah’s Balad, or historic center.

The one-month event will kick off from Al-Baiah roundabout with an estimated 7,000 men and women volunteers who would work to beautify downtown, which has been short-listed by Saudi Arabia to be nominated to become a UN World Heritage site.

This event is part of the municipality’s move toward raising awareness about the need to preserve and be proud of the city’s old town, according to Sami Nawwar, head of the municipality’s Tourism and Culture Department.

“The event carries a message of awareness toward the tourism culture which became part of the country’s development plans,” he said, pointing out that some of the structures in Balad date back 500 years.

“The area is internationally classified as a historical area, which needs an immediate response to preserve it by national hands,” Nawwar said.

In fact, Saudi Arabia would like to see Balad categorized as a UN World Heritage site, but has not officially nominated the area. The Kingdom allowed the Feb. 1 deadline for this year’s nominations lapse without officially submitting the nomination. (Saudi Arabia submitted the proper documentation to UNESCO for nominating the ancient Nabataean city of Madain Saleh earlier this year, indicating that the Kingdom’s first World Heritage site will be the site located approximately 300 km north of Madinah sometime in late 2008 or 2009 if approved.)

For Balad to become a World Heritage site, Saudi Arabia must officially submit its nomination by Feb. 1. Afterward, it is a two-year evaluation process. One of the possible obstacles to classifying Balad as a World Heritage site may be how much Saudi Arabia has done unilaterally to preserve original structures. Restoration cannot take place by simply knocking down old structures and replacing them with reconstituted replicas, as Jeddah did with segments of the old city wall that can be seen today.

The city cleanup program is part of an over-arching strategy to restore the popular historic center, which on any weekend night is filled with people. During Ramadan, Balad is particularly bustling and, as it has been for decades, is a common destination for municipal residents seeking to find bargains in the area’s numerous souqs wedged in among traditional (and often crumbling and in disrepair) architecture.

Nawwar noted that volunteers would erase graffiti and other defacements over 800 locations by scratching the paint from the limestone walls with special equipment to ensure the safety of the structures.

Volunteers would also clean all eight mosques and nine small parks in the area in addition to other various structures and roads along the major three districts of the old Jeddah quarters.

“We have translated invitations for the event in several languages including Hindi, and Bengali in order to attract as many people,” he said.

All participants would receive certificates of appreciation from the Jeddah municipality in order to encourage volunteer work, Nawwar said.