‘Where there’s muck there’s money’

JEDDAH: A visiting UK water and environmental trade mission attracted record interest at the British Consulate in Jeddah Saturday. The visiting experts from UK companies in the water, waste and environment sectors opened their three-city Saudi tour with a series of presentations in front of 158 registered attendees with professional local interest in the sectors. Omar Saeed, UKTI trade and investment officer said that visitors had come for the event from as far away as Yanbu, Taif and Makkah. “The event proved so worthwhile in the seminar format that we plan to repeat this once a year in the last week in January or first in February,” he said.

The seminar and networking evening opened with a review by Nasser Al-Amry, senior manager at the Ministry of Water and Electricity, of business opportunities and challenges in the Kingdom. Germinal to his presentation was a reassurance to potential investors that the Ministry of Finance was fully supportive of and guaranteed investors projects in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Amry said that the Kingdom was committed to private-public partnerships (PPPs) and noted that in phases one and two of water development projects for the next 25 years, government/private share would be 40/60 percent respectively.

Setting out the functions of the Presidency of Meteorology and the Environment (PME), Dr. Ahsanullah Khan said, “We have an interest in recycling and purity of water and don’t want to pollute the environment,” and added that Saudi Arabia followed the model of a “free economy” inclining toward outsourcing rather than public organization and control of services. The PME, he said, encouraged industrial, commercial and educational development. He noted that it was also the presiding body in the management of — amongst other responsibilities that included regulatory and licensing functions — natural resources and coastal zones.

Reviewing the possibilities of both reusing agricultural waste and developing new business from what is currently thrown away, John Lawton of Alvan Blanch presented profitable options for the commercial use of chicken and cow manure and plant waste. “Although recycling waste for sale has to compete in price with raw manure sold off by chicken farmers, when recycled and treated, the value for soil improvement and agriculture is far greater,” he told the delegates.

“More than any other country in the world, Saudi Arabia needs organic matter to improve its soil,” he added.

Sharing a very real business opportunity with delegates, Lawton said that an opportunity for recycling date-palm stalks and wood into high quality fiberboard existed. “We're currently throwing away the raw materials of a real business. I hope someone takes this up.” He opined that with the existing proven, and easily available, technology, there was more than sufficient raw material for Saudi Arabia to be completely self sufficient in fiber-board.

Wasted resources figured graphically in a presentation by Lloyd Martin who quoted the figure formulated by local water experts of one thousand megaliters a day lost in the Kingdom from leakage. Using a graphic image he said, "That is slightly more than having nine Jeddah fountains running continuously each day.”

Martin, regional director of Severn Trent Water that services nine million people in the UK with water, noted that low tariffs on water had created a culture that made it difficult to manage demand. Water had low perceived financial value and therefore consumers were inclined to be profligate. “Tariff issues are a challenge. What is needed is a reliable service, good delivery and the consequent raising of trust in the system that allows a rise in tariff yet have people pay,” he said. He agreed that PPPs were the way forward but emphasized that “the most important 'P' in that was partnership.”

The UK mission moves to Riyadh today for meetings with SWICC, SABIC and the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On Wednesday, it moves on to the Eastern Province where they will meet senior executives at Aramco and Marafiq during a seminar and presentation session at the Royal Commission in Jubail.