How has the WMF Watch helped:
Site Representative Pablo Longoria, Project Manager at WMF Spain, tells us how the Watch is working with local and regional governments to safeguard the future of the Segovia Aqueduct.
Address the Threats?
“A team was put in place to identify the needs of the site, by WMF, but delays have prevented the management plan from being started. Thanks to UNESCO and World Monuments Fund support, however, the regional government has agreed to collaborate in the management plan proposed and the plan and conservation works are set to commence in 2009.”
Raise Advocacy?
“The main impact that the Watch has had on Segovia is through the publicity it has brought. We wanted to work with the regional government, and this has now been achieved.”
Raise Funding?
We also obtained the support of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, who provided €120,000 in 2006 as a result of the publicity generated by the Watch List.
A grant of $125,000 from American Express was secured through the World Monuments Fund to support the launch of the project
The Community?
“There is a lack of public understanding of the pressures facing the monument. For many people, it has simply always been there and it is taken for granted. People have always lived in close proximity to the aqueduct and driven through and around the structure and there has been little understanding of the dangers facing the site. Pollution and small actions repeated over time are degrading the aqueduct little by little, creating an exponential rate of decay.
The Watch has helped to raise community awareness of the threats posed to the aqueduct but there is still a need for people to realise the impact of their daily activities on the monument.”
