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Residents asked to use resources ‘sensibly’ Nivriti Butalia / 30 January 2014 Dewa chief says authority to intensify efforts to conserve water, aims to reduce line loss by 6% in two years. Water losses in the city are going to see a drastic cut if the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has its way. Managing Director and CEO of Dewa, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer told Khaleej Times that the authority is going to intensify efforts to conserve water. Fact box > Through 8 recycling programmes last year, Emirates Environmental Group collected 1.6m kg of waste > 1,190,000 kg of paper has been collected for recycling > More than 25,000kg of aluminium cans have been collected for recycling > More than 80,000kg of plastic have been collected and recycled “By 2016 we are going to reduce line loss by 6 per cent,” he told this newspaper, while also advocating that people in villas should conserve resources and use water sensibly. Line loss refers to the water lost in the pipeline itself. Addressing worries of residents, Al Tayer also told Khaleej Times that tap water in Dubai is 100 per cent safe and drinkable. He, however, asked residents to check with the management of residential buildings to see if the buildings tanks were regularly cleaned and not corroded. In a build up to the ‘World Green Economy Summit’ (WGES) to be held in Dubai in April, Al Tayer on Wednesday spoke about ‘Green’ being a national strategy for UAE. He spoke of ‘smart city projects’ and the promotion of sustainability across the Middle East. Al Tayer also announced a new initiative by Dewa, to organise one week of green events in Dubai under the theme ‘Dubai Green Week’ from April 13-17, 2014, to be held annually and coincide with both Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition (WETEX) and the ‘World Green Economy Summit’. “Specialised forums and events will be held with the aim to increase participation from all segments of society, particularly young entrepreneurs, university students and the media among others. The activities and events of Dubai Green Week will be announced in the comin weeks,” said Al Tayer. The summit programme this year is co-developed with a high profile advisory board. The partners are United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), State of Green – Denmark, Regions of Climate Change (R20), World Bank, International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and Carbon Disclosure Report (CDR). “The WGES 2014 programme has five pillars, namely Green Regulation, Green Finance, Green Innovation, Green Partnerships and Green Marketplace,” said Waleed Salman, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the organising committee. There was also a small signing ceremony at the event, to ink a partnership between WGES and Irena to work in collaboration in the region on issues related to energy. Recycling pays off Besides water conservation efforts, the UAE has also seen a revolution in terms of recycling thanks to the Emirates Environment Group (EEG). Habiba Al Marashi, chairperson of EEG, stated: “Last year, we were able to collect 1,190,000kg of paper with the cooperation of 878 participating entities from the public, private, household and educational sectors all over the United Arab Emirates.” She said: “We were also able to collect more than 25,000kg of aluminium cans with the help of 450 participants, and 8,917 printer cartridges”. “As for batteries and juice cartons, 73 participants were able to collect a grand 2,773kg, and 91 participants collected 5,507kg accordingly. In our Mobile Phone Recycling Campaign, volunteers collected 1,984 mobile phones.” “Moreover, aluminium is precious and can be 100 per cent recyclable. The recycling process for aluminium can save up to 95 per cent of the energy needed for its production”. The statistics in the UAE indicate that there are more than 12 million plastic containers sold every day, thus recycling this huge number will save a large quantity of petroleum needed to produce new plastic containers. news@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Taylor Scott International
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