In a meeting with businessmen and businesswomen in the Eastern Province:
Al-Thaqafi: A good environment is our mission. It is a legitimate and moral demand above all.
"Presidency of Meteorology and Environment" leads a corrective movement that includes government and civil sectors
The General Chairman of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, Khalil bin Musleh Al-Thaqafi, confirmed the Authority's commitment to achieve sustainable development through partnership with various economic sectors, both governmental and private, in order to achieve the highest level of environmental conservation. He stressed that this is a legitimate and moral requirement before it is an organizational requirement.
He added that the Kingdom and the leadership support all that is related to environmental security investment in the Kingdom, as the Eastern Region is particularly protected by the environment and industrial development and with a generous follow-up from the Prince of the Eastern Region, His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Nayef.
On Wednesday 26/9/2018, a meeting was held at Asharqia Chamber between businessmen and businesswomen, and the General Chairman of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, Khalil bin Musleh Al-Thaqafi.
During this meeting, Al-Thqafi said that the environment in general was not at the required level because of the weakness of the inspection until the issuance of the General Environment Law in 1422, which paid attention to study the environmental impact.
He pointed out that the Authority has granted five years to all institutions in order to correct their situation in proportion to the general system of the environment.
He explained that the Authority was at one time suffering from a shortage in the number of inspectors, the number of 67 inspectors for many years, in contrast, "we find that the number in some of the smaller neighboring countries in terms of area and the population of the Kingdom more than one thousand and three thousand inspectors."
He added that the High Commissioner had agreed to increase the number by 200 male and female inspectors, in addition to sending 100 employees of a one-year training course to qualify them for specialized inspections.
Regarding the consulting offices for environmental studies, he said that they were not in line with the corrective movement carried out by the Authority to preserve the environment, as the environment was not their main concern.
Thus, 32 offices have been closed or not renewed, which is close to 50% of these 73 licensed offices throughout the Kingdom.
He pointed out that the Authority is working to correct the conditions of these offices in line with the aspirations of the Authority for a better environment.
With regard to the transport operations and the processes of receipt and delivery of chemical waste, which is considered one of the most dangerous wastes globally, AlThaqafi said the Authority's electronic system reveals all stages of truck transport and contributes to facilitating procedures in obtaining environmental licenses and certificates. After the cessation of all paper transactions, the work is underway to connect with the SADAD system to obtain the material compensation for these licenses.
Al-Thaqafi called on investors to study the environmental impact during the feasibility studies and before starting the project, not during the period of implementation. This is a safety valve for them and the environment and the continuation of the activity itself.
He connects the delay in the issuance of licenses to the existence of some environmental requirements that were not developed during the study of the project, which calls for some adjustments.
He also referred to some studies conducted by the Authority to protect the environment of coastal areas, such as the cultivation of Avicenniaceae trees in the Gulf, with a success rate of 20%.
He stressed that the Authority has studied the causes and seeks to address the matter and identify the appropriate sites for the cultivation of this plant that has a direct impact on the marine environment, and the study seeks to make the success of the experience of agriculture by 80 to 90%.
Moreover, he said that the Authority organized a search campaign during Shaban targeting 1333 industrial establishments in the Eastern Region alone, and monitored 1,400 violations, which represent only 30% to 40% of the real violations.
He explained the delay in the issuance of penalties for irregularities to monitor all the violations accurately, especially that some of the irregularities are fixed, and not to be interpreted incorrectly.
He stressed that the Authority is coordinating with the Industrial Cities Authority "MODON" to develop a strategy to preserve the environment, as it is working to qualify many companies to carry out the task of recycling waste based on the experiences of the world seen by the Authority.
He is calling for investment in this area as it is a mine no less than the mines of gold and minerals in Japan are extracted tons of gold from electronic waste and do not reach the percentage of damage that goes to the landfill and is used only 3%.
He explained that the Authority seeks to deal with waste in the best ways so it is studying and adopting integrated solutions.
He revealed that the Authority addressed the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to find more land for the investment sectors to be allocated as facilities for the treatment of industrial waste according to specifications that preserve the environment.
Regarding the criticism campaign against the Authority on the spread of the closure of meteorological radars, HE explained that the radar was not closed but the Authority has joined the process of benefiting from the information for reasons of national information security.
The Authority received requests from 3000 people within two weeks, all of which complied with the requirements of the Authority, which is the provision of personal data only.
He explained that the Authority has 13 radar covering all regions of the Kingdom, as it offers workshops with the Ministry of Education that to give the information about the weather conditions, and the possibility of academic suspension or not, as well as providing engineering consultancy for buildings, factories, tourist sites and poultry projects on the trends of wind and storms.
He added, "We are starting to issue quarterly forecasts (every three months), as well as expectations for five days ahead and we are working on issuing 10-day forecasts too."
It is worth mentioning that the meeting witnessed a number of proposals to preserve the environment such as a partnership between the Authority and the private sector and with Asharqia Chamber in particular to organize more workshops to raise the level of environmental awareness.
The idea of exporting some of the electronic and industrial waste to the countries that benefit from it has also been raised.
The Chairman of the Board of Asharqia Chamber, Abdul Hakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi, who conducted the interviews of the meeting, has confirmed that our wise government has gave great importance to the protection and preservation of the environment; where the environment and its protection is a law within the system of government, as it embodied in the vision of the Kingdom 2030as well. Moreover, the protection and preservation of the environment is considered a religious, moral and humanitarian duty that aimed at reducing pollution by raising the efficiency of waste management and reducing pollution of all kinds.
He added that in order to achieve of our aspirations to preserve the environment and its vital environment and enhance its sustainability, we still need more joint effort and increased knowledge of the successful experiences around us.
Through our meeting today with Dr. Khalil Bin Musleh Al Thaqafi, Chairman of Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, we would like to raise our familiarity with the applications of the general system of the environment and its implementing regulations and the procedures followed in applying the fines mechanism, as well as the strategic map of the Authority towards enhancing the culture of environmental awareness among the industrial sector and others.
Al-Khaldi honored to the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment for its great efforts in raising awareness among the different components of society and its leading role in preserving natural resources and developing them and rationalizing their use, and achieving optimal balance between development and environment within the framework of sustainable development.
