Seminar showcases Sweden’s expertise in environmental, waste management

Sweden’s world leading capabilities in environmental and waste management were spotlighted at a seminar organised by the Embassy of Sweden at the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) yesterday. The day-long event was held in partnership with Oman Environmental Services Holding Company (OESHCO), the government-owned entity set up by Royal Decree to oversee the restructuring and privatisation of the solid waste sector in the Sultanate.

In opening remarks, Jan Thesleff, Sweden’s non-resident Ambassador to the Sultanate, said Oman and Sweden shared common objectives on environmental conservation issues – goals underpinned by a common desire to safeguard the rich natural beauty that both countries enjoy. Both governments also share a commitment to sustainability goals, he added.

Ambassador Thesleff pledged Sweden’s support for the Sultanate as the country embarks on an ambitious drive to restructure and privatise its solid waste sector. Sweden has technologies, polices and solutions to help countries like Oman in the management of waste, he said. This distinguished status was attested recently by Sweden’s designation as the ‘Most Competitive Nation’ in the European Union in 2010, while national capital Stockholm was conferred the coveted title of ‘Europe’s Green Capital of the Year’, he added.

Representatives of a number of organisations and agencies on the frontline of Sweden’s environmental prowess made presentations during the seminar. Sanna Due, Senior Advisor at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), spoke about lessons learnt in the implementation of her nation’s waste management strategy. The EPA is the national agency for environmental issues in Sweden.

Representing Invest Sweden was the head of its Clean Tech Department, Lennart Witzell, who spoke about the privatisation of Sweden’s waste management sector. Invest Sweden is a government agency that specialises in providing insights on doing business in Sweden. It is also a focal point for business and research collaborations between Swedish and foreign firms.

There was also a presentation on Envac AB, one of the leading environmental technology companies in Sweden and the global leader in the vacuum waste collection industry. Envac’s Middle East business development manager Ramnath Venkateshwaran, outlined his company’s expertise in automated waste handling especially in urban areas and hospitals. A team from leading recycling specialist Renova highlighted the company’s expertise in providing complete solutions for waste management with a strong focus on reducing environmental impact. Rounding off the day’s proceedings was a presentation on Al Mashriq International Engineering Consultancy (MIEC), which is the first operating consultancy in the Sultanate specialising in designing and assessing eco-friendly electro-mechanical designs against international codes and standards. MIEC recently announced a strategic cooperation in the field of green technologies with Sweden’s Saab AB, one of the world’s leading high technology groups.

http://main.omanobserver.om/node/46392

Jordan

Students work 'For a cleaner Jordan'

A group of young Jordanians are collecting pledges from people across the Kingdom to carry garbage bags in their cars in order to end the "phenomenon of littering".

The students, from different universities in the country, started the "For a cleaner Jordan" campaign with the aim of getting a million people to sign the pledge.

So far, around 400 people from different walks of life have signed the pledge, which says: "I pledge to put a waste bag in my vehicle from now on, and help put an end to the phenomenon of dumping waste from windows of vehicles as much as I can."

Sanad Abu Assaf, who initiated the campaign earlier this year, on Facebook, said it has now moved to universities across Jordan.

Around 10-12 youngsters are volunteering to collect the pledges from university students and employees, he said yesterday.

Abu Assaf added that the German-Jordanian University is supporting the initiative by circulating the pledge among its students and those at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology, as well as employees of the Royal Scientific Society.

"Everyone can see how hard the sanitation workers labour to keep the streets clean. But some people don't care and throw tissues or even garbage bags out of their car windows," he told The Jordan Times.

Abu Assaf is the founder of Spirit of Jordan, a voluntary project that targets young people and seeks to help the community and the environment by launching educational, environmental and cultural initiatives, including the "For a cleaner Jordan" campaign.

The idea of pledging to place a garbage bag in vehicles is one step towards gaining clean streets, he noted.

"The pledge commits signatories to act with responsibility towards the environment, and raises the awareness of those who didn't sign on the need to stop littering," Abu Assaf underscored.

The voluntary campaign will also spread to schools, he noted, highlighting that schoolchildren will urge their teachers and parents to sign the pledge as well.

"By doing this, we are not only gaining more supporters against littering, but also encouraging children at a young age to shun littering," Abu Assaf pointed out.

The initiative is being welcomed by university students, who are showing interest in taking the pledge and promoting the campaign voluntarily.

Baha Qudah, a computer science student at the German-Jordanian University, said he took the pledge two weeks ago out of his desire to see clean streets in Jordan.

"I was in Europe last year, and I was impressed by the cleanliness of streets there. When I came back to Jordan, I felt sorry to see litter in the streets. Therefore, I signed the pledge and encouraged my friends and family to do the same," Qudah told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Abu Assaf and Qudah both agree that altering self-behaviour is the first step towards achieving change in any society.

"The initiative is small and operates with minimal resources, but everything starts with a small step," Abu Assaf said.

BEIRUT: No traces of radioactive material from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant have thus far been detected in Lebanon, but the fallout from the ongoing disaster has sent reverberations throughout the country’s environmental community.

The National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) announced Monday that air and soil samples collected following recent rain in the country have not indicated any presence of radioactive isotopes although further analysis, expected to be completed Wednesday, is necessary before a final conclusion can be drawn, the organization said.

It is feared that nuclear traces from Fukushima’s leaking nuclear reactors, heavily damaged in March’s devastating earthquake, could have spread to the Mediterranean and rained down on the region following heavy showers in recent days.

While the showers are expected to last throughout the week, the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission, the CNRS’s nuclear arm, seems confident that even if traces are found, these will be well below levels deemed dangerous to human, animal or plant health.

“It was clearly revealed that the radiation level has not changed and has not exceeded the normal levels that we have recorded for year,” the CNRS said in a statement.

For the last eight years, the commission has been regularly testing for radiation in Lebanese food, water and air but it has intensified efforts in the wake of the March 11 disaster and is now conducting nationwide tests four times a day.

“The council wishes to announce that the [Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission] is currently establishing a warning system, to inform about harmful radiation throughout Lebanon,” the CNRS said. The project was first agreed with the Vienna-based International Atomic Agency in 2009, but the final delivery of the monitoring equipment is only expected in the coming weeks with the system scheduled to go online in June.

Environmental activists, however, say a warning system is not the issue. “Our concern is not preparedness,” said Wael Hamaidan executive director of Lebanese NGO IndyAct, who is currently attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Thailand. “Our position on nuclear energy as a solution to climate change is that adopting nuclear energy is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.”

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is only the latest in a long string of nuclear accidents. About two nuclear incidents occur at nuclear plants around the globe each year. The 1986 Ukrainian Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear power catastrophe to date, spewed radioactive fallout into the atmosphere around the globe. According to varying estimates the event killed around 56 people directly, but will lead to between 4,000 to 200,000 deaths as a result of high instance of cancers, associated with low levels of radiation exposure.

“Our risk from nuclear disaster is high, and getting higher by the day,” said Hamaidan. “Any nuclear accident in the region could make Lebanon uninhabitable. “We are already threatened by the nuclear power plant in Israel. [And now] Jordan and Turkey are also planning on building new nuclear power plants,” he said. “Any accident in these countries could threaten our livelihood, depending on the magnitude of accident and weather conditions.”

Lebanon’s proximity to Israel, which is widely suspected of harboring an undeclared nuclear weapons and an energy program, has been behind much of the recent alarm over the radioactive waste reaching the country.

It was findings by the Israeli Sorek Nuclear Center, which claimed to have identified traces from the Fukushima plant, that first alarmed authorities about the possibility of the radioactive material reaching Lebanon.

The results, released in late March, were followed by an April 1 report by Greek Nuclear Power Association, which discovered minute traces of radiation from Japan in the atmosphere but said that the “very tiny traces” would not have any effect on human health and would disappear entirely within three weeks.

“It is strange that Israel is promoting [the idea] that its atmosphere has been polluted by radiation in a suspicious media campaign, which aims to cover the dangers that its own secret nuclear program can create,” CNRS said. “This program is not monitored, it is not subject to the monitoring or guarantees of the international agency for nuclear power and/or independent monitoring and it is not committed to certain criteria and security agreements.” Lebanon, as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has the right to develop nuclear plants for peaceful energy generation. Nuclear power, which releases no carbon dioxide – considered a key cause of global warming – has increasingly been advanced as the only viable way of simultaneously meeting the world’s growing energy needs, while also combating climate change.

In August 2010, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on Lebanon to build a nuclear power plant to combat the country’s endemic energy shortages.

“I call on the Lebanese government to seriously consider … building a nuclear power plant for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity, which would be more cost-efficient than the plan the government has endorsed,” Nasrallah said in a speech.

The benefits of such a scheme remain highly controversial. Japan, China, Germany, Switzerland and several other EU states are reviewing or deciding to scale back their nuclear power plants.

“Nuclear power is not acceptable at all and we believe that it is deadly to all life and should not be allowed at all,” said Raefah Makki, Greenpeace’s Mediterranean communications officer. “[A nuclear disaster] is one of the most devastating things that can happen to the planet … every nuclear plant is another potential Chernobyl.

“If the world’s most advanced nuclear powers cannot guard against incidents like this, how do people expect that the technology could be made safe in Lebanon and this region?”

Data shows that the Arctic region has suffered an ozone column loss of about 40 per cent from the beginning of the winter to late March, according to a news release issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The highest loss previously recorded was about 30 per cent over the entire winter.

“The Arctic stratosphere continues to be vulnerable to ozone destruction caused by ozone-depleting substances linked to human activities,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

“The degree of ozone loss experienced in any particular winter depends on the meteorological conditions. The 2011 ozone loss shows that we have to remain vigilant and keep a close eye on the situation in the Arctic in the coming years,” he said.

WMO notes that the record loss is despite the success of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in cutting production and consumption of ozone-destroying chemicals.

Substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, once present in refrigerators, spray cans and fire extinguishers, have been phased out under the protocol.

“Without the Montreal Protocol, this year’s ozone destruction would most likely have been worse,” stated WMO. “The slow recovery of the ozone layer is due to the fact that ozone-depleting substances stay in the atmosphere for several decades.”

The depletion of the ozone layer – the shield that protects life on Earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet rays – is also due to a very cold winter in the stratosphere, which is the second major layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, just above the troposphere.

WMO noted that even though this Arctic winter was warmer than average at ground level, it was colder in the stratosphere than for a normal Arctic winter.

The agency also pointed out that although the degree of Arctic ozone destruction in 2011 is unprecedented, it is not unexpected. Ozone scientists have foreseen that significant Arctic ozone loss is possible in the case of a cold and stable Arctic stratospheric winter.

6 April 2011