Working seminar on tackling dangerous wastes concluded in Taiz [Archives:2003/645/Reportage]

The first working symposium on informing about Basel agreement and discussing draft of the National Strategy on the holistic treatment of dangerous wastes in Yemen was concluded in Taiz city on Wednesday. This symposium was organised on 17-18 June by the State Body for Environment Protection, Yemeni Industrialists Society, HAS group and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Dr. Mohammed Lutf Al-Iryani Minister of Water and Environment emphasized on conclusion of the symposium his ministry's intention to establish a center for cleaner production and waste examination to offer consultancy and guidance to industrial companies so as to create an integrated management for getting rid of wastes.
The workshop had come out with significant recommendations such as:
– establishing of a national center for qualifying cadres on managing how to get rid of wastes and giving priority to getting rid of hospitals wastes in addition to engaging the private sector in management process,
– it recommended the necessity of coordination with neighboring countries and cooperation in dealing with dangerous wastes, in implementation of resolutions adopted by Arab ministers of environment.
The regional industry officer, West Asia office of the UNEP, Dr. Ahmed Basil Al-Yousfi told YT:
“Work started on the National Strategy for dangerous wastes management in Yemen in 2000, with assistance of Arab environmental experts. This is a good step on the way of sound management of environment in Yemen. We at the UNEP were an associate party in setting up the strategy and have strong cooperation with Yemen in funding a number of environmental projects and spreading environmental awareness”
On his part Eng. Ali Al-Dhubhani said:
“We have prepared a strategy to set a number of standards for wastes and started work in March 2000. We have carried out a suitable field survey of various hospitals, factories and scientific research laboratories at universities in Sana'a, Aden, Taiz and Hadramout. And we came out with this strategy that would be a working programme for the ten coming years. For the first time the private sector is to take part tackling with dangerous wastes.''
Haj Ahmed Hael Saeed Ana'm, deputy chairman of HSAG board of directors said at the workshop: “We, as private sector, are proud to be forerunners to adopt a mechanism for ridding of solid and liquid wastes resulting from industry in spite of the very little amount of factory-produced wastes. ” He added that under the globalization, market openness, domination of gigantic multi-national companies, vast extension of Yemeni shores and our administrative problems, we hope our country would not be rendered into a site for world's wastes dumping.”
Eng. Mohammed Al-Iryani head of canned wastes management project at the Ministry of General Works and Urban Planning told the YT:
“We in Yemen suffer from the lack of a system that controls our industrial wastes and lacking of administration to deal with wastes dumps, as is done in other countries in the world. That is why we started the preparing Sana'a wastes dump project and we are working on an example dump in Zabied.”
Eng. Amin Al-Hakimi director of laboratories at the standardization and specifications authority, emphasized that the most important step in controlling wastes is to cover the plastic products with a plastic layer that melts in 40 degrees centigrade and which is made of a non-toxic material.
There are other steps no less important like scientific organisations should start legislating rules to recycle all garbage and wastes like plastics and paper and glass, and what is more important is to spread environmental awareness.
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