Dark landmarks to light up green message

By PMA RASHEED 

26 March 2011, The Gulf Today

Iconic landmarks, residents, government departments and various organisations in the UAE will join millions across the world on Saturday in marking the largest action for the planet, Earth Hour 2011, by switching off electric lights for an hour from 8.30pm.

This year, the global lights-out event has reached record participation, with 131 countries and territories registered to take part, on all seven continents.

Activists and public figures in the UAE have urged the public to show their support for the planet in many ways, whether they are individuals, businesses or schools. “You can start by signing up and joining the Earth Hour movement in the UAE, or can create your own Earth Hour event.”

Various public events have been planned to mark the time when iconic landmarks across the emirates, including Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi will go dark in solidarity with the world’s largest environmental call for action on climate change.

This year the Earth Hour urges individuals, governments and other organisations to “Go Beyond the Hour” by committing to enduring actions, big or small, that they will sustain for the future of our planet.

The Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS), in tandem with the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), will run the campaign to showcase a long-term commitment to evolve beyond switching off the lights for an hour. 

A spokesperson of the EWS-WWF said the list of landmarks participating in the global switch-off event and number of participants in the UAE is record breaking this year. More than 200 companies have signed up, most of whom pledged to go beyond the hour.

The EWS-WWF called for all UAE residents to take action and get involved with events set to take place across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah and other emirates.

“The public events planned across the emirates included programmes at Abu Dhabi Corniche Beaches, Dubai Festival City celebrations at the Marina, Burj Khalifa Earth Hour switch-off celebration and bazaar at Burj Plaza, porgrammes at Al Qasba in Sharjah and Earth Hour gathering at the Fujairah Fort,” said the EWS-WWF official.

On the occasion of Earth Hour 2011, Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, the UAE Minister of Environment and Water (MoEW), commented, “The growing participation of the UAE residents and organisations in the movement indicates the higher level of awareness in the community to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development.”

“We should achieve sustainable development for us and the future generations. Simple changes in the pattern of our lives can reduce our carbon footprint, save our precious natural resources, and contribute to making the planet a better place to live,” he added.

Ida Tillisch, acting director general of EWS-WWF, said, that the “Going beyond the hour” programme calls for daily actions that incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into one’s lifestyle, and into the corporate sector.

Sharjah

In Sharjah, all non-essential lights will be switched off at the popular entertainment destination Al Qasba and Etisalat building during the hour. An array of educational fun activities will be hosted at Sharjah Aquarium and Maritime Museum outdoor area between 5 to 9.30pm.

In anticipation of the Earth Hour, the Sharjah’s official environmental establishment Bee’ah is calling upon the residents to recycle household waste on a regular basis which will help conserve energy long after the Earth Hour is forgotten.

Khaled Al Huraimel, Chief Executive Officer of Bee’ah, commented that residents can drop their recyclable household waste items such as paper, plastics, aluminium cans and plastic at the central temporary collection point set up at Al Qasba.

“The Bee’ah will then quantify the energy saved by recycling these items. The effort will contribute to conserving even more energy via recycling, and not just by turning off the lights for one hour,” he added.

Abu Dhabi

The Municipality of Abu Dhabi City hosts the Earth Hour on the 30th Street of the Cornice Road. The programme scheduled to start at 6.45pm with a lantern walk with Abu Dhabi EcoChicks at beach parking area near Hilton Hotel; followed by ‘Drum up support for Earth Hour’ by Dubai Drums Community, light bulbs exchange programme and musical performance.

“The celebrations will be kicked off at 06.45pm by a candle-lit rally starting off ADNOC refueling station (Beach visitor car park) at Abu Dhabi Corniche to Al Saahel Square beside the Formal Park, accompanied by a military and police band parades as well as drum teams as part of a host of community events,” said the municipality.

The civic body will switch off lights at its head quarters in Al Salam Street as well as at the municipal external centres at Al Bateen, Al Shahama, Al Wathba, Al Zaafraneh and Al Musaffah.

Dubai

In Dubai, the Burj Khalifa programme will witness traditional bazaar with cooking stations and handicrafts at Burj Khalifa Plaza at 5pm. The lantern march, hosted by DEWA, will be staged between 8.30pm to 9.30pm. The festival city will host school art exhibition and competition at DFC Atrium, candle light and floating lantern celebration for the planet, entertainment at DFC Marina, and candlelight dinners at DFC dining venues.

Two digital cameras and printer will be presented to the winning Earth Hour photos posted on EWS-WWF Facebook page, while two laptop computers are waiting the winners of the school-aged children participating at the DFC exhibition.

The ship repair entity Drydocks World will observe the Earth Hour, said its chairman Khamis Juma Buamim, “The programme could help us in power savings of up to 10,800KWH at the Dubai yard.”

“Supporting the global consciousness drive for the preservation and responsible consumption of our natural resources, du will switch off electricity in its facilities in Dubai Outsource Zone, Dubai Academic City 8 & 9, Al Salam and Lotus between 8.30pm and 9.30pm,” said Hala Badri, EVP Brand and Communications at du.

Fujairah

Starting from 7pm Kamal Musalam will perform modern Arabic Music at a gathering near Fujairah Fort, which will switch off lights and candle lanterns will float into the air until 9.30pm.

“There’s more to it than switching off lights for one hour once a year. It’s all about giving people a voice and working together to create a better future,” remarked Ida Tillisch.

“More governmental policies should be developed for the conservation of environment and regulations for effective energy saving in the country. Together we can achieve the meaningful emission reduction necessary to fight climate change,” opined the environmental activist.

“The EWS-WWF programme will give lessons to individuals on going beyond the hour with simple daily actions such as setting air-conditioners to 24 instead of 22 degrees, washing cars with a bucket instead of using a hose, and switching lights to high efficiency bulbs,” she added.

(Pix Supplied)

Sharjah launches residential recycling programme

BY PMA RASHEED

30 Jan 2011, The Gulf Today

Sharjah’s public sector environmental management establishment Bee’ah has launched a residential recycling programme in the emirate, as a first of its kind initiative in the UAE.

The residential recycling programme aims at promoting source segregation, besides providing the tools such as bins and totes in residential towers to collect waste, said a top official of Bee’ah.

Salim Bin Mohammed Al Owais, Chairman of Bee’ah, said that the programme includes free door-to-door training on how to recycle at home.

“Bee’ah’s city cleaning division Tandeef plans to serve the whole of the emirate by the end of 2011, as it completes a year of servicing over 800,000 residents in Sharjah. Tandeef’s fleet of vehicles and street sweepers will be further expanded, generating over 750 new jobs, by the end of the year,” he added.

The Tandeef was launched in January 2010, aimed at delivering a comprehensive, cost-effective, environmentally sound and technically reliable waste collection and city beautification solutions.

“Tandeef collects over 600,000 tons of non-hazardous municipal solid waste annually in the serviced sectors within the emirate. The division is currently on an aggressive timeline to expand its collection programmes, complementing Bee’ah’s recycling programme, to include all segments of the community such as residential, commercial and industrial,” elaborated Al Owais.

According to him, this is as part of Bee’ah’s overall integrated waste management strategy.

“Bee’ah is implementing strong strategies to turn waste into resources, placing Sharjah at the forefront of a positive environmental change, leading the way for a greener and better place to live and work,” he indicated.

“Bee’ah has already introduced the Middle East’s first 14-ton street flushing tanker, which goes beyond conventional sweeping and litter picking by cleaning roads with water,” he noted.

Khaled Al Huraimel, CEO of Bee’ah, said, “Tandeef started its operation by servicing Al Majaz Area, which is home to about 300,000 of Sharjah’s nearly one million residents. Within two months, the services were extended to the forth and fifth sectors of the emirate.”

“The Tandeef services included scheduled waste collection, public space and street vacuuming, cleaning, and sweeping. The fleet included a range of superior and all purpose specific vehicles ranging from those used for refuse collection and line-haul long range transport, large street sweepers, mini street sweepers, vacuuming machines to two-stream collection vehicles for waste and recycling,” he explained.

According to him, the division is responsible for the upkeep of the three-stream pedestrian recycling programme that was initially introduced by Bee’ah in 2007.

Al Huraimel noted, “Three-stream recyclers consist of three separate containers for paper, cardboard and plastic, glass and cans, and all other waste. Bee’ah uses these recyclers as a vehicle for furthering education on environmental sustainability by providing advertising opportunities on them for corporations to deliver corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and communications.”

“GPS vehicle tracking and computerised route-optimisation systems are used to maximise vehicle service efficiency and reduce environmental impact due to emissions.”

“The division is also in charge of collecting waste from Sharjah’s Khalid and Al Khan Lagoons via cleaning boats introduced in August 2010, which are able to collect around 100 kilogrammes of recyclables per day, doubling the rate of earlier techniques used,” concluded Al Huraimel.

Fujairah quarries produce 168 m tonnes stones annually

By PMA RASHEED

The Gulf Today, 30 July 2010

The quarries in the emirate of Fujairah produce 168 million tonnes of rock piles per year, according to a survey conducted by the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW).

"Out of the total 103 stone quarries operational across the UAE, 68 crusher units are located in Fujairah, while the emirates of Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman are having 30 and five such establishments respectively," revealed the ministry.

The statistics have been provided after the federal authorities carried out surprise inspection visits to a number of stone crusher units in Fujairah.

"At least 14 such facilities have been checked by the MoEW inspectors during night time and punitive actions have been imposed on violators of environmental and public health safety regulations," said the MoEW sources.

"Some violating crusher units were found to be emitting excessive dust into the atmosphere, in the absence of an effective dust pollution control mechanism," it added.

"If the offenders fail to fix the violation or repeat it, the ministry will shut down the establishments."

The inspections have been conducted as part of the ministry's strategies to ensure that such industrial establishments are complying with environmental and public health safety regulations, said a spokesperson of the MoEW.

"The ministry recently intensified its procedures monitoring pollutions from the stone quarries aimed at preserving the natural resources and reducing environmental contaminants that cause negative impact on public health," he added.

According to him, Cabinet decision No.20/2008 specifies the regulations on facilities operating in the quarries and stone-crushing industry.

"A ministerial decision issued in 2010 defines the conditions on the functioning of stone quarries in the country," he added.

Dr Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, the Minister of Environment and Water, had said, "The decree focused on the guidelines for planning, operation and implementation of such industrial units."

"The regulations were also applicable to cement plants and factories, tiles and ceramics factories and marble industry units," he added.

The ministry had also classified quarries into three categories - green, yellow and red - in accordance with their adherence with safety and preventive systems aimed at reducing dust pollution.

"The red category quarries do not have dust control systems to reduce dust pollution. The ministry will take stringent actions against such operators who do not abide by the rules," said the minister.

"The stone mining and crushing units were regularly monitored by the environment ministry to ensure maximum adherence of the sites to the regulations on environmental protection health and safety measures," said Bin Fahad.

The ministry has been taking punitive measures against many quarries upon negligence of public health safety conditions. Many of them had no equipments to limit dust emissions.

(Images, upplied by MOEW)

Red tides spread on east coast

BY PMA RASHEED

The Gulf Today, 24 Nov 2009

The marine life on the east coast of the UAE has again plunged into the alarming threats of red tide phenomenon, according to sources at the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW).

The re-emergence of the red tide in the waters of the eastern region has been tracked by the advanced remote sensing technologies implemented by the MOEW.

The red tide is a reddish discolouration of coastal surface waters due to concentrations of toxin-producing algae, which are fatal to many forms of marine life. In such a situation, fishing grounds are closed to prevent the harvest of any contaminated shellfish, said a senior ministry official.

Dr Maryam Hassan Al Shenasi, Executive Director for Technical Affairs at MoEW, said, "The phenomenon spread widely for months across the coast including Dibba, Fujairah, Kalba and Khor Fukhan areas. Later, the marine life gradually returned to normal conditions as coral reefs began to recover from the negative impacts of the phenomenon."

"New images of the red tide captured by satellite have located the emergence of the phenomenon and tracked its movements in the waters of the east coast region," she added.

According to her, the satellite images and information show the existence of the recent high concentration of the tides on surface waters of Dibba, Khor Fakkan and other areas. The images and information were distributed to concerned civic bodies and relevant environmental communities.

Shenasi pointed out, "Field surveys by the MOEW have shown the emergence of red tide on the east coast region stretching from the port of Dibba sporadically along the coast. Meanwhile, no fatalities of fish stocks and other marine organisms or foul odors emitting have been detected in these areas."

She said that test results conducted at central laboratories of the MOEW showed the chemical nutrients have decreased in the waters of the east coast during the spread of the red tides.

"Since the onset of red tide, the environment ministry had been making efforts to control it, in co-ordination with Kuwait-based Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment," added Shenasi.

"It's the season for breeding of a wide variety of fish reserves as well as migration of some fish species in the UAE's eastern coastal zone," explained Shenasi.