The Kuwait Environment Protection Society launched the workshops of the final conference for the «Developing Waste Management» project in some Arab countries, held during the period from 21-25 of this month. The Society supervises the implementation of the project in 5 Arab countries and organizes it in cooperation with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.
Development Fund
Janan Behzad, Secretary General of the Association, said that the project «Developing Waste Management in Some Arab Countries,» which is supervised by the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, comes in cooperation with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and includes universities, research centers and environmental laboratories to implement the project with the aim of supporting efforts to raise awareness about waste management, through the implementation of some executive and awareness programs that contribute to developing Arab cadres and spreading information about the proper management of waste in order to generalize its spread.
Arab countries
She stated that the specialized personnel participating in the workshop include participants from the State of Kuwait, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Sultanate of Oman, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She explained that the workshops of the «Developing Waste Management in Arab Countries» project include 15 lectures, 6 field visits, and 3 discussion sessions, and conclude with recommendations in the field of managing household and medical waste and municipal sludge resulting from sewage treatment plants.
Day 1
She explained that the German expert, Engineer Sebastian Frisch, addressed in his lecture «household waste landfills and their environmental impacts, and the resulting experiences in the field of comprehensive surveys and methods of monitoring them.” She pointed out that the Jordanian expert in waste technologies, Engineer Tariq Zaid Salameh Jabr, addressed in his lecture “household waste sorting and treatment technologies.” She noted that Engineer Ismail Abdul-Ghani, in turn, addressed the evaluation of waste landfills using modern scientific measurement methods, reviewing geophysical and geotechnical methods.
Workshops
The Secretary-General of the Environmental Protection Association stated that the workshops, which have been launched, address several topics, including practical applications of geophysical and geotechnical methods used in assessing landfills, a practical application of a model for studying the components of domestic waste, an introduction to the project of surveying and preparing a comprehensive database for waste management in the State of Kuwait, as well as the role of regulatory bodies in reviewing compliance with environmental requirements and identifying violations in the waste management sector.
Environmental monitoring
She added that the workshops also cover topics such as environmental monitoring information systems, the economic returns of managing municipal landfills, landfill data analysis and reporting, gas well measurements at closed landfills, medical waste and its treatment and disposal methods, practical application of all data, and a project to survey and develop a comprehensive database for waste management in Kuwait. She noted that the "Developing Waste Management in Some Arab Countries" project involves universities, research centers, and environmental laboratories to implement the project, which aims to support efforts to raise awareness about waste management. This will be achieved through the implementation of several executive and awareness programs that contribute to developing Arab personnel and disseminating information on sound waste management practices to promote wider adoption.
Day 3... 3 workshops
Youssef Al-Kous, treasurer of the Environmental Protection Association, said that on its third day the conference continued to implement 3 extensive workshops, namely «municipal sludge resulting from wastewater treatment plants, medical waste management, and household waste landfill management,» noting that «the municipal sludge workshop generally aims to study how to benefit from the sludge resulting from wastewater treatment for use in various fields such as energy production and agriculture, or to benefit from it in landfill operations in accordance with the applicable environmental requirements, instead of accumulating it and avoiding the environmental damage that it may cause.«.
Scientific lectures
Al-Kous explained that the three workshops included 5 scientific lectures and applied models, noting that the first lecture was entitled «Introducing the project to survey and prepare a comprehensive database for waste management in the State of Kuwait, and the role of environmental law and its executive regulations in the field of waste management,» presented by Engineer Suha Karam, head of the project to survey and prepare a comprehensive database for waste management in the State of Kuwait.
He explained that the second lecture was presented by Engineer Maryam Al-Yaqub, Director of the Environmental Compliance Department at the Environment Public Authority in the State of Kuwait, and it was entitled «The Role of Regulatory Bodies in Reviewing Compliance with Environmental Requirements and Identifying Violations in the Waste Management Sector.» The third lecture was entitled «Visiting the Environmental Monitoring Information System and Learning about the Mechanism for Classifying, Analyzing and Retrieving It – A Presentation of Waste Databases,» and it was presented by Engineer Nasser Al-Husseini, a Geographic Researcher in the Environmental Data Department at the Authority. He mentioned that Dr. Marwan Al-Dimashqi, Senior Advisor to the Authority, presented the fourth lecture on «Sludge and an Introduction to Methods of Transporting, Landfilling and Dealing with It in Accordance with Environmental Requirements.».
The final day of the conference
Wajdan Al-Aqab, President of the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, announced the conclusion of the final conference for the "Developing Waste Management" project, which the Society oversees in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and Oman, in cooperation with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. Al-Aqab stated that the conference saw participation from Arab and Kuwaiti experts and professionals in this field. She noted that "the final day's events included a concluding workshop to present the project's results. This workshop aimed to showcase the final outputs of the project's activities across all its themes, along with the most important findings and related recommendations. Additionally, the components of environmental strategies in the field of waste management were presented (a detailed presentation of the mechanism for preparing the State of Kuwait's strategy), delivered by German recycling expert, Engineer Katharina Reh. This was followed by a general discussion session where each country presented its experience in waste management. Members of the delegations from the Arab countries included in the project were allotted 15 minutes each, followed by another 15 minutes for interventions from Arab and national participants.".
household waste
She pointed out that the workshop «Steps for Evaluating and Monitoring Municipal Waste Landfills,» which was included in the final day, «aimed to introduce municipal waste, its classification, and the environmental risks associated with it, while presenting the experience of the Control Department on the performance of environmental activity related to landfills in the State of Kuwait, and reviewing the objectives of evaluating the efficiency of disposing of municipal waste.» She noted that the workshop’s outputs included raising awareness of environmental concepts and environmental law, especially with regard to methods and ways of dealing with waste, improving methods of treating municipal waste and ways of disposing of waste, building capacities in the field of landfill surveys and methods of monitoring them, and contributing to solving the problems and difficulties facing waste management.
municipal sludge
It reported that the workshop on «Municipal Sludge Resulting from Wastewater Treatment Plants» resulted in the development of methods for transporting and burying wastewater treatment waste, supporting scientific methods for utilizing municipal sludge, and completing and improving theoretical and field training in the field of liquid municipal waste management. It indicated that the workshop on «Medical Waste Management» included the results of its discussion session, which included building Arab capacities in the field of knowledge and skills regarding environmental auditing and its objectives, raising the level of competencies of those working in developing methods for treating medical waste and ways to dispose of it, supporting the process of improving the environment by taking into account the requirements for collection, transport and storage, and enriching the State of Kuwait’s experience in treating hazardous medical waste through the exchange of experiences and opinions among the participating countries.
Executive Programs
The head of the Environment Society stated that "the closing conference of the 'Waste Management Development' project was attended by delegations from Arab countries, as well as representatives from Kuwaiti government agencies, research centers, environmental laboratories, and universities. The aim was to support efforts to raise awareness about waste management through the implementation of several executive and awareness programs that contribute to developing Arab expertise and disseminating information on sound waste management practices to promote wider adoption." She emphasized that these specialized experts included participants from Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. She explained that the conference included 15 scientific lectures, in addition to a program of field visits and discussion sessions culminating in recommendations on the management of household and medical waste, as well as municipal sludge from wastewater treatment plants. The second day of the conference included field visits.
Behzad revealed that the closing conference of the «Developing Waste Management» project launched a field visit program for Kuwaiti and Arab participants, who were divided into two groups distributed over the visit program. She noted that the first visit was to the landfill in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh to demonstrate a practical application of the geophysical and geotechnical methods used to evaluate the landfill, in addition to a practical application of a model for studying the components of household waste.
One of the hospitals
She added that the program of visits includes a visit to the Environmental Monitoring Information System of the General Authority for the Environment and an overview of the mechanism for classifying, analyzing and retrieving waste through a presentation of the waste databases, in addition to a field visit to a hospital for practical application of data collection and filling out a special questionnaire during the visit related to medical waste, for the participants in the workshops on «Steps for Evaluating and Monitoring Household Waste Landfills,« the »Medical Waste Management« workshop, and the »Municipal Sludge Resulting from Sewage Treatment” workshop.
A tour of Emske
A member of the board of directors of the Environmental Protection Society reported that Dr. Heba Ahmed Mustafa, Environmental Economics Advisor at the Environment Public Authority, delivered the fifth lecture on "The Economic Returns of Managing Municipal Waste Landfills" as part of the "Medical Waste Management" workshop. He noted that the Arab and Kuwaiti participants attended all five lectures after being divided into working groups. The first group participated in the Medical Waste Management workshop, the second in the Municipal Sludge workshop, and the last in the Municipal Waste Landfill Management workshop. He added that the Arab and Kuwaiti delegations participating in the conference toured the Environmental Monitoring Information System (EMIS) and were briefed on the project's four applications.
