Dr. Wijdan Aloqab, President of the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, emphasized “the importance of Kuwait Oil Company’s commitment as a national and strategic supporter of the celebration of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflicts.” She praised the company’s interest in supporting media materials that can be used for awareness and education in this regard, through the film “Kuwait Fires,” directed by David Douglas. She also commended the Scientific Center for its interest in showing the film on the IMAX screen, noting the praise of “the General Secretariat for Environment and Sustainable Development of the League of Arab States for Kuwait Oil Company’s role in supporting these media materials that preserve Kuwait’s environmental heritage and history through the awareness film broadcast at the Scientific Center in celebration of this annual event.”.
Dr. Aloqab recalled that “the pillars of Kuwaiti diplomacy, under the leadership of the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, may God have mercy on him, at the beginning of the new millennium, adopted the initiative of Kuwaiti civil society, foremost among them the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, and then mobilized its diplomacy until the issuance of the UN resolution adopting November 6 as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in Wars and Military Conflicts.”.
She explained that “the 24th edition of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict comes this year carrying a resounding humanitarian message of our condemnation, rejection, and refusal to violate our personal, societal, and international peace, let alone violate our natural and environmental resources and capabilities and the capabilities of our future generations, through the dozens of wars that are raging and groaning on our planet Earth.”.
She added, “Deliberately using the environment as a tool of war inevitably threatens water and food security, contributes to the spread of diseases, disrupts efforts to combat climate change, deteriorates environments, causes loss of biodiversity, and leads to pollution on land, sea, and air. As for displacement, migration, and refuge resulting from these conflicts, I emphasize that receiving and sheltering a large number of refugees in small Arab countries leads to serious repercussions in terms of social, economic, environmental, demographic, and pressure on natural resources.”.
