JUBAIL, 7 June 2006 — Abdul Rahman S. Aba Husain, acting president of Marafiq, has reiterated his company’s commitment to protect the Kingdom’s environment and preserve its natural habitat.
In a statement on the occasion of the World Environment Day, he praised the government’s efforts in converting deserts into green cities.
The United Nations has been observing June 5 as World Environment Day since 1972. This year’s World Environment Day theme is Deserts and Desertification, and the slogan is Don’t Desert Drylands, a theme more relevant to this part of the world. The theme emphasizes the importance of protecting drylands, which cover more than 40 percent of our planet’s surface.
Like many urban and rural areas of the country, the industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu were barren desert some 30 years ago. “As a nation we can be proud that, despite the scarcity of water in our country, we have managed to turn this desert land into two green cities,” Aba Husain pointed out.
He spoke about Marafiq’s efforts in transforming seawater into drinkable water for use in residential, commercial and industrial purposes. “We clean the wastewater coming from our households, businesses, factories and industries. We turn this waste into value. We use this treated water to bring green life to our cities,” he explained. “In order to streamline our environment protection drive and create a systematic procedure for the environment protection, Marafiq at its very inception set its target to achieve ISO 14001:2004 Environment Management System certification,” he said.
“Our hard work and efforts of the EMS team yielded result when early this year we were awarded the ISO 14001:2004 certification, which is the latest upgrade of the former 1996 standard,” he said.
Marafiq observed the World Environment Day at its headquarters with Saudi Aramco, Presidency of Meteorology and Environment Protection, Saudi Basic Industries Corp, and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.
