Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
Of the most beautiful areas that I used to frequent during the unbearably hot summer season in particular is “Al Mahraga”, located across from the Air Force Building. The region boasts coastal views bordered by the sea, so it was popular amongst citizens, residents, and tourists alike enjoying swimming, fishing, and especially catching crabs and small snails. That location holds some of the most beautiful memories of studying and preparing for tests and secondary schools’ end of the year exams, in addition to intently reading stories and novels of fiction and romance, which built my rampant imagination at university level. Today, that area disappeared and was transformed into structures for the new airport and many environmental and recreational areas vanished with it to be replaced by houses and buildings of steel and concrete.
The objective of today’s article is not about the environment, which would otherwise consist of long, melancholy dialogue, but on our actions, behaviour, and barbaric methods of environmental destruction and elimination of wildlife in that area. We need to enact legislation and systems that are tougher in dealing with the reckless tampering with the environment, and create programmes instilling environmental awareness in children and students in schools, homes, and in the media. Further, there is a need for the establishment of productive projects that are involved in even the smallest details of maintaining environmental assets and ensuring the provision of safety requirements for present and future members of the community.
Specifically, I touched upon Al Mahraga because it was also the area designated for burning garbage and waste, which is where its name was derived. It is so ironic that the one of the most beautiful areas in Doha emitted the worst odours in the city as a result. My attention piqued in the past few days with the emergence of several pilot projects aimed at eliminating waste and garbage in a civilized manner engaging re-production, reusing, and recycling.
As indicated by Professor Sadiq Qazim, recycling is the process reusing waste, whether domestic, industrial, or agricultural, in order to reduce the impact of its residues and their accumulation in the environment. The recycling operation is carried out through the classification and separation of waste based on the raw materials used within it, and then re-manufacturing each article separately. The concept of recycling was developed during World Wars I and II, where countries were suffering from severe shortages of some basic materials such as rubber, causing them to collect such waste materials for reuse. Years later, the recycling process became one of the most important management practices of waste disposal for the many environmental benefits derived from the process. For many years, the most popular form of recycling was undertaken by producers by directly reusing material waste (scrap), but with the beginning of the nineties, the focus of recycling was directed at manufacturing waste for the production of other products based on the same raw materials such as: recycling glass, paper, plastic, aluminium, and other materials.
In Germany, an exciting project drew the attention of international media to the city of Gelsenkirchen, which, after years of effort, perseverance, and hard work one of the most prominent cities in Europe today in the manners in which it handles waste. The city developed projects to generate gas from waste that can be used to run power stations, and is currently powering more than 4,000 houses in Gelsenkirchen. The power is derived from the waste processing plant, which is the most important source of biomass for renewable energy, and depends on litter and waste to develop more effective forms of energy. Whether the source of the mass consists of slaughtered livestock waste, sawdust, remnants of plants, renewable raw materials, timber, sugar beet, rapeseed, or sugar cane; they are all sources of fuel, heating, and electricity.
In 2005, the factory in Gelsenkirchen was created for the production of energy from garbage. It began like any other recycling plant by depending on materials that were disposed. With the growing need for renewable energy sources, the number of factories established in Germany increased to 1,000, which produced 10 billion KW of electricity over the past year. That was an increase of up to four billion compared with 2008. The low cost of producing energy from biomass managed to increase the material’s share in electricity production.
Another project, a Swiss one, came after the success of Germany, which comes from the vision of a long-term investment strategy entered into by institutions and private companies with the blessing of government.
The beginning was initiated by the Swedish company, Electrolux, for the manufacturing of household electrical appliances. The company’s work depends on collecting plastic waste floating around in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, and three European seas, and using this for the manufacturing of vacuum cleaners.
If we in the GCC, as citizens, had the option of investing in buildings, towers, commercial housing, acquisition of commercial complexes, sports clubs, either British or European, we would prefer to invest in productive projects that truly serve the country rather than take risks in such a volatile market. This is especially the case given that the economic crisis taught us a life lesson to learn from the mistakes and uncalculated ventures that Dubai has yet to pay for.
Of the most beautiful areas that I used to frequent during the unbearably hot summer season in particular is “Al Mahraga”, located across from the Air Force Building. The region boasts coastal views bordered by the sea, so it was popular amongst citizens, residents, and tourists alike enjoying swimming, fishing, and especially catching crabs and small snails. That location holds some of the most beautiful memories of studying and preparing for tests and secondary schools’ end of the year exams, in addition to intently reading stories and novels of fiction and romance, which built my rampant imagination at university level. Today, that area disappeared and was transformed into structures for the new airport and many environmental and recreational areas vanished with it to be replaced by houses and buildings of steel and concrete.
The objective of today’s article is not about the environment, which would otherwise consist of long, melancholy dialogue, but on our actions, behaviour, and barbaric methods of environmental destruction and elimination of wildlife in that area. We need to enact legislation and systems that are tougher in dealing with the reckless tampering with the environment, and create programmes instilling environmental awareness in children and students in schools, homes, and in the media. Further, there is a need for the establishment of productive projects that are involved in even the smallest details of maintaining environmental assets and ensuring the provision of safety requirements for present and future members of the community.
Specifically, I touched upon Al Mahraga because it was also the area designated for burning garbage and waste, which is where its name was derived. It is so ironic that the one of the most beautiful areas in Doha emitted the worst odours in the city as a result. My attention piqued in the past few days with the emergence of several pilot projects aimed at eliminating waste and garbage in a civilized manner engaging re-production, reusing, and recycling.
As indicated by Professor Sadiq Qazim, recycling is the process reusing waste, whether domestic, industrial, or agricultural, in order to reduce the impact of its residues and their accumulation in the environment. The recycling operation is carried out through the classification and separation of waste based on the raw materials used within it, and then re-manufacturing each article separately. The concept of recycling was developed during World Wars I and II, where countries were suffering from severe shortages of some basic materials such as rubber, causing them to collect such waste materials for reuse. Years later, the recycling process became one of the most important management practices of waste disposal for the many environmental benefits derived from the process. For many years, the most popular form of recycling was undertaken by producers by directly reusing material waste (scrap), but with the beginning of the nineties, the focus of recycling was directed at manufacturing waste for the production of other products based on the same raw materials such as: recycling glass, paper, plastic, aluminium, and other materials.
In Germany, an exciting project drew the attention of international media to the city of Gelsenkirchen, which, after years of effort, perseverance, and hard work one of the most prominent cities in Europe today in the manners in which it handles waste. The city developed projects to generate gas from waste that can be used to run power stations, and is currently powering more than 4,000 houses in Gelsenkirchen. The power is derived from the waste processing plant, which is the most important source of biomass for renewable energy, and depends on litter and waste to develop more effective forms of energy. Whether the source of the mass consists of slaughtered livestock waste, sawdust, remnants of plants, renewable raw materials, timber, sugar beet, rapeseed, or sugar cane; they are all sources of fuel, heating, and electricity.
In 2005, the factory in Gelsenkirchen was created for the production of energy from garbage. It began like any other recycling plant by depending on materials that were disposed. With the growing need for renewable energy sources, the number of factories established in Germany increased to 1,000, which produced 10 billion KW of electricity over the past year. That was an increase of up to four billion compared with 2008. The low cost of producing energy from biomass managed to increase the material’s share in electricity production.
Another project, a Swiss one, came after the success of Germany, which comes from the vision of a long-term investment strategy entered into by institutions and private companies with the blessing of government.
The beginning was initiated by the Swedish company, Electrolux, for the manufacturing of household electrical appliances. The company’s work depends on collecting plastic waste floating around in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, and three European seas, and using this for the manufacturing of vacuum cleaners.
If we in the GCC, as citizens, had the option of investing in buildings, towers, commercial housing, acquisition of commercial complexes, sports clubs, either British or European, we would prefer to invest in productive projects that truly serve the country rather than take risks in such a volatile market. This is especially the case given that the economic crisis taught us a life lesson to learn from the mistakes and uncalculated ventures that Dubai has yet to pay for.
