Preserving marine environment essential for its sustainability
Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammad AlFares yesterday stressed importance of preserving the marine environment to ensure its sustainability for successive generations through fruitful cooperation among the countries of the region.
“Such scientific events contribute to the strengthening of international cooperation in the field of marine environment studies,” Fares said at the opening the sixth Session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Committee for the Central Indian Ocean (IOCINDIO-VI) and the preceding IOCINDIO Strategic Revitalization Scoping Workshop. He added that man had resorted to the oceans after increasing population growth and declining resources, as the oceans became an important food resource and an economic base for industries such as fishing and tourism.
He explained that the meeting today includes a group of scientists and researchers from specialists and experts in the field of the marine environment to raise issues related to the environment of the Indian Ocean and propose studies that will help decision-makers to achieve effective management of natural resources based on the marine environment in a sustainable manner.
He noted that this meeting plays a very important role in educating the communities of the Indian Ocean regarding the marine environment and the oceans, expressing hope that the session will succeed in presenting proposals and scientific ideas to raise awareness of the peoples of the region. Meanwhile, Director General of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) Dr Samira Al-Sayed Omar said that Kuwait’s hosting of this session coincides with its broad recognition of the important role played by the oceans in their interaction with the climate and their contribution to achieving sustainable development.
She added that Kuwait recognizes that the oceans have made important contributions to human life and the preservation of the biological balance of the earth, in addition to its belief that the seas, oceans and bays are important sources of human food and energy.
She pointed out that the scarcity of fresh water in Kuwait is a major driver of the trend towards seawater desalination to provide drinking water, referring to the efforts of the Institute and its research studies on water, Arabian Gulf, fisheries and aquaculture since its establishment in 1967. — KUNA