Latest news with #Hadhrami
Muscat Daily
10-08-2025
- Business
- Muscat Daily
RO123mn sewage and water works underway in Bausher
Muscat – Nama Water Services is pressing ahead with major infrastructure projects across Oman to expand wastewater networks, build trea-tment plants, and improve pumping and treated water systems. One of the largest initiatives under way is in Bausher, Muscat governorate, where seven sewage network projects are being implemented at a combined cost of RO123mn. Jafar bin Mahna al Hadhrami, Project Manager for Muscat governorate at Nama Water Servic-es, said the works in Bausher inc- lude 311km of main and seconda- ry sewage network lines and 34km of potable water networks. 'The aim is to enhance basic services for residents while supporting long-term infrastructure plans.' In Bausher Heights, a sewage network project costing RO17.5mn is under construction. Set for completion in 2028, it will serve 60,000 people and cover 68km of sewage networks with 1,100 inspection chambers and 6,850 house connections. Current completion rate is 10%. A sewage network project in South Azaiba costing RO5.6mn is 12% complete. With 49km of networks, 1,714 inspection chambers and 722 house connections, it will benefit 13,000 people on completion by 2027. Hadhrami said the first phase of rehabilitating sewage networks in North Ghubra and North Azaiba, costing RO24mn, will start in mid-September 2025. Completion is expected in 2028. The works will include a new 4km main sewage line, replacement of 812 inspection chambers, rehabilitation of the current main line, and linking networks to the pumping station. To improve pumping capacity, a RO21mn station is being built for Bausher and Al Ansab. It will feature two 17km discharge lines and a 3.5km gravity sewer line to connect both networks. Completion is targeted for 2028. In Al Ansab, a RO25.7mn sew-age network project is 8% comp-lete. It will include 75.5km of net- works, 1,160 inspection chambers and 4,180 household connectio-ns, with completion set for 2028. Hadhrami said two projects are also under way in Al Khuwair. The Al Khuwair 1/17 project, cos-ting RO14.3mn, will provide 882 home connections, 30km of sew-age networks, 15km of potable water networks and 1km of trea-ted wastewater networks. The Al Khuwair 2/17 project, worth RO15mn, will provide 858 home connections, 30km of sewage networks, 19km of potable water networks and 2.2km of treated wastewater networks. Both are due for completion in 2029.
CairoScene
31-07-2025
- General
- CairoScene
A Rainbow in the Rubble: Yemen's Forgotten Palace of Colour
A Rainbow in the Rubble: Yemen's Forgotten Palace of Colour In the Hadhramaut town of Tarim, one 1950s palace defies the dusty palette of history—with floral murals, radiant façades, and a defiant beauty that refuses to fade. Yemen is a country of earth tones: sunbaked mud-brick towns, towering brown mountains, and ancient stonework the colour of sand. Even the most majestic architecture—like the famous skyscrapers of Shibam—tends to blend into the land. But tucked deep in the Hadhramaut Valley, where the desert narrows into a long ribbon of palm groves, there's a palace that breaks that pattern entirely. It doesn't rise above the landscape—it bursts from it. Khaylah Buqshan Palace, named after the woman who commissioned it, is one of Tarim's lesser-known landmarks. Built in the 1950s, it looks less like a seat of power and more like a wedding cake dreamed up by a surrealist. Tarim itself has long been a place of quiet influence. Often described as the intellectual heart of southern Arabia, it's home to hundreds of mosques and dozens of religious schools. For centuries, it was a centre of Islamic scholarship and Sufi poetry, as well as a hub for returning merchant wealth—much of it from Southeast Asia, where Hadhrami families built diasporic fortunes. It was in this climate of return, prosperity, and architectural experimentation that the palace came to be. The Buqshan family was one of the region's most prominent, and Khaylah Buqshan—rare in her visibility as a woman patron—wanted a residence that reflected not just status, but joy. Unlike the stern mud fortresses that define much of Yemen's built history, her palace feels playful. Its walls bloom with hand-painted florals. Every window frame is outlined in turquoise, pistachio, violet, or ochre. The ceilings are sky blue. The scalloped doors seem almost too delicate to open. The palette wasn't incidental—it was chosen with intention. The florals, lovingly applied by local artisans, were an act of aesthetic resistance: softness in a harsh land, colour in a monochrome world. Despite decades of neglect and conflict in the region, the palace still stands. Its paint is faded in places, but still unmistakable. Restoration work has been whispered about for years, but like much of Yemen's cultural heritage, it sits suspended—held back, but not erased. To visit the palace today is to stumble upon an apparition. There are no ticket booths, no signage, no footpaths to guide you. Local children might tell you where to find it—if you ask kindly. Its presence is unassuming, yet impossible to forget. Khaylah Buqshan Palace is a reminder that beauty, too, can survive history. Even without headlines. Even without permission.
Spectator
30-07-2025
- Spectator
The other side of Yemen
In the western imagination, Yemen exists as a byword for terrorism and death. Its appearances in international headlines are flattened into a trilogy of suffering: Houthis, hunger, hopelessness. The civil war has dragged on for over a decade, leaving much of the nation in ruins. Life is punishing for the millions who navigate daily existence amid chronic instability. The Houthis – entrenched in the capital, Sana'a – continue to tighten their grip on power in the northwest. Their attacks on Red Sea shipping have drawn international reprisals and fuelled regional tensions. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office still advises British nationals against travelling to the country. Yemen is not therefore your conventional holiday destination. But Yemen is more than the Houthis. On the edge of the Empty Quarter, in the nation's northeast, lies the Hadhramaut. It is here that I came to glimpse a different Yemen, far from the front lines and well beyond the reach of Houthi control. It has been spared the war's daily tumult, and so – eager for an adventure and travelling as a tourist, despite the warnings – I boarded an ageing Yemenia Airbus to the city of Seiyun, a gateway to the region's hinterland. The Hadhramaut stretches across desiccated wadis carved deep into the desert floor. Escarpments that trap the harsh Hadhrami heat surround it, and architectural marvels rising in dreamlike defiance punctuate its landscape. The city of Shibam is the most magnificent of these relics of mud and time. It was once the capital of a bygone kingdom and a crucial caravan stop on the incense route across southern Arabia. Today, Shibam – a Unesco world heritage site – is renowned for the jagged mudbrick skyscrapers that dominate its skyline, built on the ruins of its own foundations. Often cited as the world's first example of vertical urban planning, Shibam is a testament to Yemeni imagination. Freya Stark, who travelled through the region in the 1930s, dubbed it the 'Manhattan of the desert'. Many of the 444 towers, which can reach 11 storeys high, date back to the 16th century. Trapezoidal in form, they are baked from the wadi's mud and capped with pale limestone plaster, their surfaces a patchwork of ochres and whites. Ornate woodwork frames the doors. The city, which sits atop a hillock, is ringed by a fortified wall, once a bulwark against marauding Bedouin raiders. I spent a blistering summer day wandering its alleyways, shepherded closely by a Kalashnikov-wielding military escort. In the early afternoon, a labyrinthine interior – suspended in time and devoid of life – unfurled within. The air was thick with the scent of sun-baked mud, and the 3,000 Shibamites had sought silent refuge in the shade and shadows. Any signs of modernity blended seamlessly with the ancient geometry of the city's towers. Now and then, a building stood derelict, as the mud crumbled back into the earth, its former occupants long since departed for Saudi Arabia or further abroad. Only the bleats of goats echoed from darkened recesses. Yet the silence of the city did not mean solitude. Behind latticed windows, a hushed audience kept watch over the outsiders. [Marcus Ray] But as the sun began to set, Shibam began to stir. Children emerged to play in the alleyways, clustering in giggling groups. Old men lumbered to the square clutching bushels of khat – the psychotropic leaf that softens speech and stretches time – ready to commence their evening chew. Games of dominoes clacked on wooden crates outside cafes in the main square. Shibam's rhythm returned in quiet pulses. The city moved to its own elegiac choreography, momentarily disrupted by the foreign footfall. The Hadhramaut is home to many other places of storybook grandeur. There is the religious city of Tarim, the village of Haid al-Jazil and the grand Bugshan Palace, whose mesmeric colours contrast with its lunar surroundings. Beyond this region too, there is richness – no less storied than in Sana'a – though much of it remains at risk of destruction and is, for now, out of reach. [Marcus Ray] Striking as they were, the Hadhramaut's marvels almost felt too cinematic to capture the dynamism of modern Yemen. Life proceeded instead at full tilt – and in all its colour – in Seiyun, where motorbikes weaved between honey stalls and minarets carried the call to prayer. The scent of cardamom and diesel hung thick in the air while gentle recitation drifted from a nearby madrasa. Children trained on sandy football fields, and mechanics crouched beneath battered cars, cigarette smoke curling above the chassis. A girl roared into a fan, thrilled by the staccato rasp of her voice, then toppled over laughing. A man tuned his old oud beneath a date palm. This sort of ordinary does not make the news. But in a country so often seen through the lens of collapse, normalcy itself can feel revelatory. The Hadhramaut's daily rhythms and architectural wonders resist the easy narratives imposed from afar. Not everything here conforms to the image of a beleaguered nation. Yemen is more than the headlines that define it. It is a country where history lives alongside hardship and people persist without spectacle.
Saba Yemen
26-05-2025
- Saba Yemen
Agriculture ministry condemns Somali gunmen crime against fishers
Sana'a - Saba: The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Water Resources condemned the kidnapping crime committed by an armed Somali group against Yemeni fishermen. The ministry explained in a statement received by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that an armed group of Somalis kidnapped and detained the fishing boat "Al-Maymoun 1" and its crew of 27 fishermen from Hadhramout Governorate while they were working in the Ras Banah area within the marine waters. The statement indicated that the gunmen took the fishermen to the Bargal area and detained them there. They demanded a ransom of $50,000 for their release, despite the boat and its crew holding official fishing licenses issued by an accredited Somali office. The Ministry condemned these practices, noting that this serious incident is a blatant violation of all maritime norms and laws, a direct threat to the lives of Yemeni fishermen, and an assault on their legitimate rights to practice their profession in peace. The Ministry emphasized that this crime is not the first and is part of a series of repeated attacks targeting Yemeni fishermen, including the murder of Hadhrami fisherman Omar Nasser Sheikh, from the city of Mukalla, a year ago, by a Somali soldier. No serious measures have been taken to stop these violations. The Ministry held the Somali authorities fully responsible for the safety of the detained fishermen and for any harm they may suffer, and called on them to take immediate action to free them and hold those involved accountable. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Saba Yemen
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Saba Yemen
Ministry of Culture & Tourism's Folk Arts Festival continues in Sana'a
Sana'a - Saba: For the third consecutive day, the Folk Arts Performances Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in celebration of the 35th National Day of the Republic of Yemen (May 22), continues in Liberation Square in the capital, Sana'a. The third day of the four-day festival, supported by the Heritage and Cultural Development Fund, featured performances of Hadhrami heritage accompanied by traditional chants (Zamils) expressing Yemeni unity, the importance of upholding it, preserving it, and defending it. The performances also reaffirmed the Yemeni people's solidarity with the Palestinian cause and their support for Gaza in the face of the occupying Zionist entity. The third day of the festival was marked by a large public turnout, with attendees expressing their joy over Yemen's National Day (May 22), achieved through the will and determination of Yemenis across the north, south, east, and west of the nation—despite immense challenges and decades-long conspiracies targeting Yemen's sovereignty and independence. It is worth noting that the festival, held under the slogan "From Sana'a to Gaza," will showcase folkloric and heritage performances from various Yemeni provinces and regions, supervised, directed, and produced by the renowned artist Ali Al-Mahmoudi. Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (Local)
