JEDDAH, 18 June 2005 — A 13-strong Saudi environmental delegation concluded a hectic seven-day tour of the UK with a visit to the Shanks Fawley incinerator plant in Hampshire yesterday. The delegation, the first from Saudi Arabia, was led by Omar Saeed of UK Trade and Industry (UKTI) at the Jeddah Consulate, and visited the Chartered Institutes for Waste Management (CIWM) exhibition at the seaside town of Paignton in southwest England.
The CIWM Exhibition is the world’s biggest and Europe’s most comprehensive event for the waste management industry, attracting over 6,500 waste management professionals from the UK and overseas. Mounted every year since 1898, the three-day exhibition hosted over 370 exhibitors from every industry sector.
The UK visit follows on from a delegation which attended the environmental technology exhibition in Birmingham in May. The delegates were actively looking at sophisticated waste management systems as part of a new initiative by Saudi Arabia to address potential environmental problems.
World financial sources, which will eventually underwrite the huge sums for building the infrastructure needed to serve increasing populations, are applying strict environmental conditions to borrowers. This is driving governments and industry increasingly to focus on care for the environment as part of their expansion plans.
Ahmed Bajahlan, director of the Environmental Control Department, regarded the visit to the exhibition and sites as very important for environmental issues in the Kingdom. “This visit arranged by UKTI has been very worthwhile and has opened up a lot of possibilities for us,” he said. “We met with many experts from environmental agencies and specialist companies — particularly in the area of waste management — who were both very knowledgeable and helpful.”
He said the Royal Commission was establishing an environmental training center in Yanbu. “We have been talking to experts and trainers with the intent to invite them to Saudi Arabia to train our people,” he said.
Abdul Rafee Abhar, manager of the Environmental Division of Haif Company in Riyadh, said he joined the delegation expressly to look for partners in a project to clean up Riyadh, in concert with the municipality, through recycling and waste management.
“It has been an excellent and successful visit,” he said. “We’ve been able to talk to very many experts and have identified several partners for the project. I anticipate positive outcomes after negotiations are complete.”
Delegation members visited a dozen or more sites in southern and central England to see sophisticated waste management operations. One was the Biffa Anaerobic Sewage Works in Leicestershire. The company was recently awarded a SR210 million contract to operate Leicester’s domestic waste disposal. It bears significant similarities to the proposals mooted by municipal authorities in Jeddah and Riyadh. They include a household wheeled-bin collection scheme; collection of glass, plastics and paper; and a reception and recycling center where steel and aluminum would be extracted from other waste.
The advanced technology behind the purpose-built anaerobic digester, used for composting the city’s organic waste, could easily be applied in Saudi Arabia where rapid disposal of organic waste is a priority because of the high ambient temperatures.
Pertinent to the Kingdom’s oil industry was the interest by Abdulkareem Al-Mutawa, owner of the Al Mutawa Group based in the Eastern Province. “I came to look for the best applications available for cleaning up oil spills,” he said, “and I have found a great deal here. I am very impressed by what is being done in the field and the applications presented here.”
“Everyone in the delegation has said that they have found what they were looking for,” said Saeed. “The site visits gave the delegates a chance to see the technology in action.”
He said the areas of land remediation, oil spill cleanup and education and training were of intense interest to the delegates.
