The Gulf Conference on Environment and Sustainability 3rd – 5th December, 2005

The Conference Recommendations     Next Page

1. Public Awareness and Curriculum

  2. Air Pollution and Sewage  
Increase Public awareness through media and enhancing the programs to the youth and students at the level of general educations and colleges; encouragement of NGOs and volunteers and providing them with necessary needs, mostly with manpower and finance; link curriculum with local, regional and international environmental concerns; encouragement of research on environmental issues; introducing environmental prospective in the curriculum; enhancement of college centers of excellency in regards with environment; train local volunteers on follow-up, investigations and environmental impact assessment. Sincere thanks from the conference to the large role played by the center of volunteers under the supervision of Shaikha Amthal Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Saba   One of the main concerns discussed is air pollution and the control of stack emission from power stations, refineries and vehicles. The conference recommended that crude oil must be limited in sulphur content and cut down to less than 1% to minimize the impact of emission to the environment; request all local industries to separate industrial liquid from sewage dump, there should be units linked to the factories to recycle both industrial and sewage waste; all car wash must comply with EPA rules and regulations by sending loop oil to the specific designations and never dump the used oil into the storm drain systems and there should be a mobile unit to treat the industrial effluent; there should be an agreement on the principle of polluter penalties; transparency is a must to control air pollution from source and non-source point pollution.  
3. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 4. Soil Contamination and Desertification
There should be rules followed by all governments and Private Sectors by doing an EIA and baseline study for any project.   There must be a quick solution and remediation for contaminated soil (oil lakes); stop dumping used oil in evaporation pits; there must be alternatives to protect the natural resources; there must be a long term plan of action to control desertification and to control over-camping on sensitive areas; there should be a local area for camping and the duration for camping should be less than four months.