Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

Organic Industrial Wastes in the Middle East

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Organic industrial waste includes a wide range of organic materials obtained from industrial and commercial operation. Industries in Middle East countries produces a large number of organic residues and by-products whose disposal is a major problem for stake-holders. In recent decades, the fast-growing food and beverage processing industry has remarkably increased in importance in major countries of the Middle East. Since the early 1990s, the increased agricultural output stimulated an increase in fruit and vegetable canning as well as juice, beverage, and oil processing in countries like Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. There are many technologically-advanced dairy products, bakery … Continue reading →

Gas Flaring and Venting in MENA: Need for Urgent Action

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Every year global oil producers waste precious natural gas by flaring and venting equivalent to the combined gas consumption of Central and South America. The top twenty major gas flaring and venting countries in the world include Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Angola, Venezuela, Qatar, Algeria, the United States, Kuwait, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Mexico, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Congo, the United Kingdom, and Gabon. Gas flaring and venting have been known to be associated with crude oil processing in oil fields. Newer oil wells are equipped for the recovery of both oil well gas and crude oil and hence the gas … Continue reading →

Sustainability in the MENA Cement Industry: Perspectives

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The population in the MENA countries has doubled during the last 30 years (from ca. 110m in 1980 to almost 484m in 2018). As per conservative estimates, the rate of urbanisation in the MENA countries will exceed 70% five years from today (average for all developing countries: 54%). The proceeding urbanisation and the population increase involve several problems and challenges for the national governments and also for the cement industry. The cement production of countries in the MENA region has almost tripled during the last 15 years up to approximately 500m tons. Since the start of national revolts and demonstrations … Continue reading →

Seawater Desalination – A Better Choice for MENA

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Water scarcity is a major problem in many parts of the world affecting quality of life, the environment, industry, and the economies of developing nations. The MENA region is considered as one of the most water-scarce regions of the world. Large scale water management problems are already apparent in the region. While the MENA region’s population is growing steadily, per capita water availability is expected to fall by more than 40-50% by the year 2050. Also, climate change is likely to affect weather and precipitation patterns, and the consequences of which may force the MENA region to more frequent and … Continue reading →

منهاج النظام التربوي البيئي في المملكة العربية السعودية

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تمت مناقشة المادة السادسة ضمن الإتفاقية الإطارية للأمم المتحدة بشأن تغير المناخ, و التي تُعنى بالتعليم البيئي و بالأمور المناخية ,في مؤتمر بون المناخي2013 و التحضيري لمؤتمر الأعضاء في نسخته التاسعة عشر ببولندا. تنص هذه المادة على نشر ثقافة التصدي لآثار التغييرات المناخية بين الشعوب عبر إدراج مواد مخصصة في المناهج التعليمية و إشراك الطلاب في إيجاد خطط و حلول للتعامل مع هذه العوامل المناخية. بالإضافة إلى ذلك يتم عقد ورشات عمل و ندوات لتنمية المعاهد و المدارس المعنية بهذا المفهوم من حيث تبادل الخبرات, و في تسهيل مهمة إيصال المعلومات و نشرها بين شرائح المجتمع. يقتصر دور التوعية البيئية … Continue reading →

Climate Change Impacts in the GCC

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The GCC countries face multitude of climate change challenges including desertification, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and sea level rise. The region is characterized by high temperature, high humidity and arid lands resulting in seriously degraded soil and land damage in addition to salt intrusion in the aquifers affecting the small scale agricultural lands thus enhancing the food security threat in the region. All of the above geographical threats have therefore increased and activated the participation of GCC states in global negotiations recently as evidence are uncovered and impacts being felt across the region. If a couple of days of rain … Continue reading →

Agricultural Scenario in MENA

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Agriculture plays an important role in the economies of most of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The contribution of the agricultural sector to the overall economy varies significantly among countries in the region, ranging from about 3.2 percent in Saudi Arabia to 13.4 percent in Egypt.  Large scale irrigation is expanding, enabling intensive production of high value cash and export crops, including fruits, vegetables, cereals, and sugar. Egypt Egypt is the 14th biggest rice producer in the world and the 8th biggest cotton producer in the world. Egypt produced about 5.67 million tons of rice and 635,000 tons … Continue reading →

الذروة النفطية…..بين النظرية و الواقع

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  يعد النفط اليوم من أهم مصادر توليد الطاقة في العالم، بالطبع بعد اليورانيوم، وقد تم وضع الكثير من المواد تحت التجربة لتكون بديلآ للنفط و لكن لم تتك بالنجاح إلى يومنا هذا.و السبب الرئيس لذلك هو فقدانها الكثافة التي يتمتع بها النفط، فضلا عن أنها لا تحقق معدلات العائد التي يحققها الإستثمار في إستكشاف وإنتاج النفط،. وهناك أيضآ أبحاث علمية تشير إلى أن العالم مقدم على كارثة إذا لم يتوصل لمصدر بديل له، حيث لا يمكن للإقتصاد العالمي أن ينمو حاليآ بدون وجود كميات كافية من الطاقة تتماشى مع إحتياجات هذا النمو. وتتزايد النقاشات اليوم أكثر من أي وقت مضى … Continue reading →

The Significance of Domestic Water Conservation

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The Middle East region is plagued by water scarcity and water management issues. Despite heavy investment in the water sector, water management remains a serious economic and environmental issue throughout the region. Overconsumption of water is a serious issue as per capita use of water in most of the Middle Eastern countries is several times more water than the global average. For example, on an average each UAE and Saudi Arabian resident consume 550 liters and 250 liters of water per day respectively. On the other hand, per capita water consumption in United Kingdom and Germany is 150 liters and … Continue reading →

Smart Grid – Key to Managing Energy Demand

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Electricity consumption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been climbing steadily for the past few decades. Saudi electricity market is growing at an accelerating rate due to higher consumption rates in the private, commercial and industrial sectors. Current domestic energy consuming behaviors pose inescapable fatal consequences that affect both the Kingdom’s production and export levels. Therefore, an urgent action is needed to curb the increasing electricity demand and promote energy conservation in the country. Smart grid is a dynamic solution which can bridge the gap between the current supply and increasing demand in Saudi Arabia. What is Smart Grid? A … Continue reading →

Women and the Environment: Perspectives from Arabia

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Women and the environment are closely interlinked, throughout history, different nations glorified women as powerful symbols of nature, and nature has always been given the female characteristics: care, reproduction and life-giving. Nevertheless, women’s involvement in the preservation of the environment has seldom been recognized and documented in the histories of several nations. One of the most significant phenomena in the last decades is recognition of women rights to achieve sustainable development; many international agreements reflected this recognition, including Rio Declaration in 1992, which stresses the point of the centrality of the full women participation to achieve environmental sustainability. The UN … Continue reading →

Environmental Research in Arab World: Perspectives

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The Arab world is facing many environmental pressures ranging from challenges in resource management and water scarcity to air pollution and climate change, which all require serious scientific environmental research. Arab nations contribute 1.7 percent of the total value of budgets embarked for environmental research worldwide. Leaders in Environmental Research Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia are the most active research countries in general science and environmental research. Scientific research has increased in the last ten years, with Egypt leading the Arab world, followed by Saudi Arabia for both the number and rate of publications produced. Egypt has contributed at … Continue reading →