Author Archives: Rehan Ahmad

About Rehan Ahmad

Rehan Ahmed is currently working as Head of Waste Disposal Unit at Supreme Council for Environment, Kingdom of Bahrain. He has over thirty four years of professional experience on projects related to waste management, recycling, reuse and recovery & environmental impacts assessments. Rehan has been instrumental in construction, development, operation and management of Hafira industrial landfill site and establishment of healthcare waste treatment facility in Bahrain.

World Habitat Day 2017: Affordable Homes

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World Habitat Day, observed every year on the first Monday of October, is meant to reflect on the state of our urban areas and the basic human right regarding provision of adequate shelter to all human beings. World Habitat Day (WHD) also aims to remind the planners and government officials of the collective responsibility for the habitat of future generations and a day to encourage grassroots action from civil society organizations to advocate for universal decent housing. Each year, World Habitat Day takes on a new theme chosen by the United Nations based on current issues relevant to the Habitat … Continue reading →

أداء الحج الأخضر

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يعتبرالحج أكبر تجمع من الناس في العالم حيث يتلاقى المسلمون من عدة بلدان لأداء الشعائر الدينية، ويؤدي ما يقرب من ثلاثة ملايين مسلم فريضة الحج كل عام. إن اتخاذ الترتيبات اللازمة سنوياً لعدد الحجاج المتزايد يشكل تحدياً لوجستياً بالغاً للحكومة والسلطات المعنية المكلفة بتوفير احتياجات السكن والنقل والصرف الصحي والغذاء والرعاية الصحية للحجاج. للحج أثر هائل على البيئة. فأثناء الحج، تتولد كميات ضخمة من النفايات التي يجب جمعها وإدارتها بطريقة مناسبة. تتعلق الآثار الضارة الأخرى باستخدام المياه المفرط وإنتاج المياه العادمة ومركبات النقل التي تسبب تلوث الهواء ورمي النفايات والزجاجات البلاستيكية والحفاضات المستخدمة ومغلفات المواد الغذائية. كل هذه الملوثات ليست … Continue reading →

Towards an Eco-Friendly Eidul Adha

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Eidul Adha, like other religious festivals, often has a major impact on the environmental resources. Extra food, drinks and clothes are made, used and consumed which results in a major environmental footprint. The celebrations and festivity are often extravagant and cause pollution of different forms. The day starts with the special prayers whereby men, women and children gather to offer prayers. The site of praying after the ritual is often plagued by litter, rubbish and waste scattered all over the place and even blowing in the air and migrating to nearby safe heavens for unaesthetic and unhygienic accumulations. Muslims on Eid … Continue reading →

The Relationship Between Climate Change and Natural Disasters

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Many natural disasters are directly linked with the climate change including floods, hurricanes, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and storms. Such disasters have claimed more than 600,000 lives in the past two decades. The frequency and magnitude of these disasters are increasing with time and is not going to subside even with the plans of reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and signing of climate change agreement at Paris. UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction recorded an average of 335 weather-related disasters between 2005 and 2014, an increase of 14% from 1995-2004, and almost twice the level recorded during 1985-1995. According to … Continue reading →

Tips for Hot Water Conservation in Households

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The use of hot water in homes, offices, commercial centers, educational buildings and institutions increases manifolds during winter months. The demand of hot water for showers, laundry and washing makes up more than a third of an average household’s water and energy use in winter. The conservation of energy is essential as the cost of both electricity and water is increasing steadily and the consumers will have to pay more for energy and water bills. The main areas of hot water usage in residential areas are bathroom and kitchen. Bathing consumes up to 200 liters of hot water, depending on … Continue reading →

An Easy Guide to Green Shopping

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With the advent of December, many festivities, celebrations and seasonal parties are planned globally. These events require feverish shopping leading to usage and wastage of more resources. In addition, December is also famous for the shopping mania that grips people from all walks of life. ‘Shopping’ is certainly one of the most famous ‘indoor sport’ being practiced equally by people of developed and developing countries depending on their lifestyle and budget and is mainly being done by the female gender. ‘Going green’ is a way forward for all of us as it is a lifestyle change including improving our shopping … Continue reading →

A Message on Earth Day

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Earth Day has now grown into a global environmental tradition making it the largest civic observance in the world and is widely celebrated event in which over one billion people from over 190 countries will participate by taking suitable actions for saving our mother Earth. The Earth Day was first organized in 1970 to promote respect for life on the planet and to encourage awareness on air, water and soil pollution. Each year a different theme or topic is selected. The theme of Earth Day 2018 is ‘End Plastic Pollution’. Plastic pollution is poisoning our oceans and lands, injuring marine life … Continue reading →

An Urgent Call to Reduce Food Wastage in Ramadan

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The month of Ramadan witnesses a great rush of frantic buyers who are buying and storing food items and allied commodities. Unfortunately, Muslims countries, especially Gulf nations, generate huge quantities of food waste which increases manifolds during the month of Ramadan and festivals like Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha whereby the consumption and wastage of food increase at an alarming level. Firstly, the food habits change in the month of Ramadan whereby Sahoor or breakfast/ meal is taken early in the morning. Later after sunset Iftar/ Fatoor (opening of the fast) is taken usually with specially cooked food, … Continue reading →

Food Waste in Ramadan: Trends and Counter-Measures

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Muslims countries, Arab nations in particular, generate huge quantities of food waste which increases substantially during the month of Ramadan. As per conservative estimates, around 15-25% of all food purchased or prepared during Ramadan find its way to the garbage bin before even being used or consumed. Food Waste Trends in Ramadan The trend shows that during Ramadan, the demand for beef, mutton, chicken and related meat products increases by almost 50% of the normal demand, which in itself is very high. Similar is the fate of other related food items like vegetables, fruits and dairy products etc. which are … Continue reading →

Ramadan: A Catalyst for Green Living

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The true meaning of Ramadan is to take care of our body, soul, people, surrounding and ecosystems. The month of Ramadan is a golden opportunity to make a real shift towards ‘green living’ that is environmental friendly, non-polluting, non-wasteful and aim towards conservation of natural resources. During Ramadan, let us create awareness on use of resources, think and act positively towards our environment and change our unfriendly habits which are impacting our ecosystem. Let us seize this opportunity to adopt a model for a green and environmentally responsible behavior that addresses urgent environmental issues. Ramadan witnesses an over-consumption of meat, … Continue reading →

Reusing Textbooks Can Repurpose Knowledge for Needy Students

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For every academic term or semester, thousands of new textbooks are being printed, bought and used. On the other hand, almost the same number of textbooks and course material are being discarded after its use and find its way to the garbage bins ultimately landing at the landfill site where they are being buried, compacted and disposed occupying precious land area. Usually these textbooks are not being reused or recycled generating huge quantities of paper waste. In many of the private schools, the textbooks have to be bought in every term due to change in edition or minor revisions putting … Continue reading →

The Menace of Plastic Water Bottles

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It is common to see people greatly misuse plastic water bottles considering it free, taking a bottle, sipping it half and throwing it away. These used and partially consumed water bottles are then collected and thrown away in municipal garbage bins from where  it is collected and transported to landfills and waste dumps. These water bottles thus have a high carbon footprint and represent enormous wastage of precious water source and misuse of our other fragile resources. In many cases, these water bottles are being littered around the commercial and religious places. Plastic water bottles are a common feature in … Continue reading →