Kuwait Times

Published Date: April 12, 2010
By Ahmad Saeid, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: A first of its kind report assessing the environment and future expectations of the Arab world will be released later this month. The commission of Arab Environment Ministers and the Arab League asked a number of scientific centers in various Arab countries to carry out the assessment. The announcement was made yesterday morning during a press conference held at the premises of the Kuwait Journalists Association in Shuwaikh. Khaled Al-Hajiri, chairman of the Kuwaiti based Greenline Environmental Gr
oup (GEG), said that releasing the report on April 26 in Kuwait will be a great achievement for the whole Arab world.

We didn't have a complete evaluation of the environmental situation in the Arab world so this report comes at a time when it is most needed," Al-Hajiri said. The chairman of GEG said that after the release the group will make sure the results are available to as many people as possible. "The public will have a better understanding of the environmental challenges the Arab world is faced with," he added.

Scientific centers from Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain participated in the study. Statistics were gathered from all Arab countries to compile the possible future environmental challenges this part of the world will face.

The research looks into a number of issues including the atmosphere, water resources, land resources and the possible impact of global warming," said Thari Al-Ajmi, an expert with the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) who took part in the study. He added that the report also analyzed the environment's effect on social and economic trends in the Arab world.

Al-Ajmi shared some of the study's findings. "The Arab world's carbon dioxide emissions represent only 4.7 percent of global emissions but would be heavily affected by any increase of sea level as a result of global warming." He explained that this is because 50 percent of the Arab world's population lives at sea level.

Al-Ajmi revealed that among the most pressing challenges of the Arab world is its huge population growth and increasing demand on water. He said that 66 percent of the region's surface water resources come from outside the Arab world. He added that Arab citizens' annual share of water dropped from 3,500 cubic meters in the year 1960, to 1,000 cubic meters now. "The current population of the Arab world is 334 million and it is expected to reach 586 million by 2050. This increases the urgency to take needed
steps toward meeting the future demand of water and electricity, and also to take measures to confront poverty," he asserted.

According to Al-Ajmi, the research also found that agricultural land in the Arab world dropped from 23 percent in the year 1980 to 5.1 percent today. The study also revealed that the vast majority of Arabs, 90 percent, live in dry or semi-dry areas.

The report released a number of recommendations that the committee of Arab Environment Ministers can adopt in order to confront these environmental challenges.