Residents furious over stagnant water

Suit eyed for environment pollution

KUWAIT CITY, March 3: The issue of stagnant water at Sabah Al-Ahmad Residential City seems to be provoking crisis amid warning that residents of the area have decided to file an accelerated lawsuit over what they consider ‘exposure to environmental pollution due to negligence of concerned officials’, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The daily quoting a source noted some lawyers are ready to take up the case, adding the residents were not pacified by official press statements released after the recent meeting with government officials or the proposed field visits to the city. The lawyers insisted the affected residents deserve compensation for damages caused by environmental pollution through stagnant water.

In a statement, Residents Volunteer Committee condemned the statement issued by officials on the proposed solution to the problem at a recent meeting, which they deem a palliative measure, especially as tankers cannot contain wastewater as recommended. They insisted the right solution is to fill up the lakes and build a permanent flow station with the sewer located no less than 10 kms outside the city.

Meanwhile, according a report issued by the Institute of International Finance, Kuwait is capable of dealing with the low oil prices for at least the next ten years, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The report explained that the reasons behind the capability of Kuwait to deal with such situation include Kuwait’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, low public debt and strong banking system. However, Kuwait is one among those countries in the region that depend heavily on oil for revenues. Kuwait therefore needs to find alternative sources of revenues and enhance its official investment rate, which is the lowest among the Gulf countries.

The report said the non-oil revenues are expected to witness an increase from 2.5 percent in 2017 to 3.1 percent in 2018. The surplus of local production this year is expected to increase by about four percent with the increase in the oil prices.

The report also expects the financial scale to fall by about 14 percent after deduction of investment revenues and ten percent share of the future generations’ fund.