Director General of Dubai Municipality opens Middle East Waste Summit 2009

Attended the opening of the conference and exhibition, Ahmed Bin Butti, Director General of Dubai Customs and Jamal Lootah, Executive Director of the Emdad Company and Abdullah Rafee, Assistant Director-General for the Environment, Public Health and Obeid Salem Al Shamsi, Assistant Director General for Administrative Affairs and Services and a number of officials.

The conference discussed various issues related to waste disposal methods and sound management and recycling, and aims to call upon the international community to assume its responsibilities in finding sustainable solutions in waste management and to emphasize the importance of protecting the environment.

Lootah said in his opening speech of the Forum on the waste that the world today is experiencing a range of environmental issues that have a direct impact on human life, it is global warming to an increase in levels of air pollution and the ocean to the high proportion of waste generated in developing countries and which has become the obsession of the officials on the matter of how to deal with this phenomenon is a serious threat to the environment, pointing out that the city of Dubai, which has seen an acceleration of urban growth in recent years, has the process of sustainable management of waste issues, where the amount of waste generated in cities and high rates with increasing frequency warning signal should be considered.

He pointed out that during the time year 2000 about 3000 tons per day of waste arrived to the municipal garbage dump for the purpose of disposal, this rate in 2008 had reached 11,000 tons per day and the rate of increase annual rate exceeds 20% per annum and during the same period the amount of construction waste generated in the emirate has increased to approximately 30%.

He said:

"Within the framework of the significant efforts made by Dubai Municipality to develop sustainable solutions to the challenges resulting from growth in the quantities of waste generated in the emirate was through a strategic partnership with the private sector, the implementation of several initiatives and projects designed for the application of environmentally sustainable practices in waste management, such as project to recycle construction waste, household waste recycling project, a draft consumer recycled tires, and the plan to recycle the oil consumed."

"Dubai Municipality has started the work on three important projects for the management of waste, this is a general framework for the strategy to reduce waste, the automated system for the collection of compressed waste, and waste from the transfer of energy in the emirate, and this ambitious project will contribute effectively to the implementation of the directives of Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, aiming to maintain the environment of the emirate and promote the cultural side of the Principality and to preserve the gains achieved in various fields and that have made Dubai a global attractive interface, and designed the competent authorities in the emirate through the implementation of the Dubai Municipality's proposal to turn waste into energy to achieve several objectives including the reduction of emission levels of methane gas from landfills health, reduce reliance on landfills and the health of the traditional method of disposal of household waste," he added.

The conference attracted a large number of visitors interested in the environment and participants from all countries of the Middle East region, and waste management specialists and representatives of government departments, municipalities, industry and education in addition to a number of private companies working in the field of waste management.