EPA exempts disabled, elderly from paying fees for services
KUWAIT CITY, Dec 30: Director General of the Environment Public Authority (EPA) and Chairman of EPA’s Board of Directors Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmad announced the exemption of people with special needs and the elderly from paying all government fees for the services provided by the authority, reports Al-Rai daily.
In a press statement issued to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Sheikh Abdullah revealed that the board of directors of the authority agreed during the meeting held on Monday to exempt people with special needs and the elderly from paying entry fees to Jahra Nature Reserve, which was officially opened to the public on December 22.
He said the EPA board of directors also agreed to set the fees for visiting the reserve, which is the first eco-tourism project in the country to be opened to receive visitors, at KD 1 for children under 10 years of age, and KD 2 for those older than that, including citizens and residents.
Sheikh Abdullah explained that EPA’s Board of Directors discussed, during its meeting, the topics on its agenda, including approving the amendment of some executive regulations issued for protecting air from pollution, and the regulations related to biodiversity.
The Jahra Reserve is one of the important sites for migratory birds, as it contains nearly 400 species, in addition to the desert fox and the Great Spotted Eagle that visit the reserve annually.
The total area of the reserve is 3.4 km. However, the expansion process that is currently ongoing in the south and north parts extends to 18 km all the way to Jaber AlAhmad residential area and Khuwaisat.
A visit to the reserve must be booked through the official website of EPA at least one day in advance, bearing in mind that the visit duration is 1.5 hours, during which a public relations team will escort the visitors on a tour inside the reserve and the various designated observatories.
It is worth mentioning that the Environment Public Authority (EPA) is a public authority with a legal trait. It has an attached budget that deals with environmental affairs and has general jurisdiction over environmental affairs in the country. It is attached to the Council of Ministers and is supervised by the Supreme Council for the Environment. It is concerned with carrying out all the work and tasks that guarantee the protection of the environment in the country.
In another context, Sheikh Abdullah AlAhmad said, “There are vast areas of land in Kuwait that are lost to landfill. About 1,000 square meters per day are lost to landfill waste. We will not allow this matter to continue because we must use this land in a better way for our future generations, either for agricultural or housing purposes”.
On the sidelines of a workshop on the comprehensive national strategy for waste management in the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Abdullah said, “The process of receiving data on wastage has been completed in coordination with the German Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology.
The outputs of this study will be presented. Various state authorities have participated in the inventory of all waste in the state, and the Supreme Council for the Environment will implement it on the ground.
We will not allow the creation of new landfills in the State of Kuwait. Through the strategy, a plan has been developed to deal with all kinds of waste for recycling, reduction, safe disposal or to convert them into energy.
If we do not obtain documented official data, we will not be able to do anything for future projects, and we will not have the raw material to carry out these projects.
Through this strategy, we were able to develop a roadmap using which we are working on environmental sustainability and reducing waste in landfills.
Household waste in the State of Kuwait is the highest in the Gulf and globally. According to the study, we find that the largest percentage of household waste in the world comes from homes in the State of Kuwait. This must be reduced by increasing societal awareness to reduce the amount of waste.
Waste contributes to great harm, both environmentally and economically. We need to reduce the amount of waste and increase recycling. We have prepared an area in Salmi for building recycling factories. We have been trying for six years to reduce waste. With the results of this project, we will be able to go ahead in dealing with all kinds of waste”.
Sheikh Abdullah concluded his statement by saying, “We sensed this five years ago. We work hard and diligently with everyone. We have set up the strategy. The vision is clear, which is the sustainability of environmental work and integration with the concerned authorities”.
In the same context, a statistics on waste in Kuwait revealed that the quantities of waste arriving at the landfills are estimated at 3.5 million tons. This includes all types of non-hazardous household, commercial, agricultural and industrial waste. The landfills occupy more than 18 square kilometers of land, and the depth of waste deposition ranges from 3 to 30 meters.