This is a very well written analytical article about the efforts conducted by Gulf states in developing cutting edge research and innovation practices. The article is originally published by Science Devnet   By: Waleed Al-Shobakky Farouk El-Baz routinely shifts between two views of the Gulf countries. One day the Egyptian-American geologist will be in his Boston office poring over detailed... [read more]

Press release   King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, the Saudi Arabian national research and development organisation announced it is establishing a Nanotechnology Centre of Excellence, in association with IBM Research, to seek key innovations, and explore and develop breakthroughs in applying molecular-scale engineering to critical energy and sustainable resource issues. The agreement... [read more]

Lulwa Shalhoub, Arab News Monday 11.2.2008   JEDDAH — People in Saudi Arabia are not yet familiar with the three-curved-arrow logo that indicates that a plastic or paper container can be recycled, a recent poll by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) employees showed. To raise awareness on environmental issues, a group of environmental activists gathered recently to organize... [read more]

The thrust for sustainable and green urbanization in the Gulf is gaining more momentum. After a carefully designed visit of Japanese world's top sustainable achitect design giants Nikken Sekkei to the Gulf, reports of a package of projects worth US $ 1.25 billion have been recently unveiled. This is the story published in Al Bawaba website   Contracts with a combined total of US$1.25 billion... [read more]

A good comination of innovative ideas and financial resources can yield some extraordinary results. This will be demonstrated yet again in Saudi Arabia where the barren dry country will host the world's biggest stystem of botanical gardens and landscsapes. Spreading over an area of 160 hectares (395 acres) the gardens aim to re-create the 400 million-year-old history of the Earth's plants, trees... [read more]

Arab News 29.5.2007   The Jeddah Municipality has reserved 50 undeveloped plots of land around the city to become public parks and is calling on local philanthropists to sponsor and fund the development of public spaces, a municipal official said yesterday. The lands, worth an estimated SR30 million, are being developed with the help of private investors willing to sponsor the development... [read more]

Arab News April 13th 2007   Official research has revealed that private investors own around 96 percent of the Kingdom’s coastal areas, leaving only four percent for public use. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Metrological and Environmental Protection Administration and the Coast Guards jointly conducted the study of the Kingdom’s coast. A recent... [read more]

It is interesting to see the editorial of a Saudi newspapers engaging in advocacy for the IPCC report and global efforts to curb greenhouse gases. The editorial published on April 7th by Arab News provides adequate criticism for China and India in their pursuiy to water down the IPCC report. However the editorial falls short of mentioning official Saudi efforts in confronting the original IPCC text... [read more]

Prince Turki Bin Nasser Bin-Abdulaziz, chairman of the Saudi Environment Monitoring and Protection Authority, has been interviewd by Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper and revealed some very interesting new environmental trends in the Kingdom. The interview is well worth documenting and here is the full text   Asharq Al-Awsat) In April 2003 you undertook a tour of Eastern Saudi Arabia to assess the... [read more]

Faiz Al-Mazrouei, Arab News   Large quantities of recycled water for irrigation, landscaping and industrial purposes will be available in the Eastern Province with the completion of several projects under construction in Dammam and Qatif. The projects, when completed, will have a capacity to reclaim 350,000 cubic meters of sewage a day. Abdul Rahman Al-Manie, director general of Water Department... [read more]

From: Arab News   Muhammad Al-Qarni   ABHA, 17 February 2007 — The romantic scenery of the legendary Asir region is under threat as locals complain of both expatriate residents and Saudis dumping garbage and ruining the landscape. Many locals fear the dumping may escalate and claim there is a massive environmental disaster in the making. Asir is a beautiful mountainous area located in... [read more]

Raid Qusti, Arab News   RIYADH, 24 January 2007 — Minister of Water and Electricity Abdullah Al-Hussayen said yesterday that new housing projects would not be permitted without water-conservation measures in place. “This is part of a collaborative effort with the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization ... that every new home is built with water-saving kits,” he said without outlining how the measure... [read more]

Source: Arab News   JEDDAH, 4 January 2007 — The city of Jeddah has seen massive construction in the last five years with an abundance of buildings mushrooming across the city due to an economic boom in the Kingdom. However, many construction companies have a tendency to dump their construction waste on empty pieces of land across the city. The problem has been exacerbated lately and environment... [read more]

Source: Arab News   MAKKAH, 5 January 2007 — Experts have warned of an emerging threat of vast environmental pollution at the holy sites during the Haj season unless precautionary measures are taken. They urged the authorities to pay attention to the protection of the environment as assiduously as they do to the security, comfort, accommodation and movements of the pilgrims, Al-Riyadh newspaper... [read more]

The first EWS-WWF Marine Conservation Forum took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on September 11-14, 2006. The Forum provided an opportunity for the region’s environmentalists to share concerns about the region’s coral reef and marine turtle populations and collaborate on potential solutions. Representatives from Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and... [read more]

  By Arvind Nair- Gulf News Published in 4-12-2006   WATER crisis in Qatar, as indeed in the Gulf and the rest of the world, threatens future progress and impedes efforts to alleviate poverty. To drive this point home, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Doha office has brought out a book called Policy Perspectives for Ecosystem and Water Management... [read more]

All Birds roaming the air in Saudi Arabia will enjoy complete safety from humans in the coming year as Saudi authorities have imposed a one year ban on hunting. This is a report from Arab News.   Mohammed Rasooldeen, Arab News   RIYADH, 2 November 2006 — The Kingdom has banned hunting of birds for the next 12 months. The ban was announced yesterday, following a directive issued by Crown... [read more]

Source: AFP Published in Bahrain Tribune   RIYADH (AFP) OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia has expressed concern that oil could become a victim of “selective” environment policies and called for striking a balance between a cleaner environment and development. The kingdom, whose economy heavily relies on oil income, said the use of advanced technology to carry out environment-friendly projects... [read more]

Who would've thought that a severe water shortage in Jeddah would cause a religious tension in the conservative Saudi Community. In a previous articles posted at the Arab Environmental Monitor the Arab News newspaper described the suffering of Saudi women waiting inline for water to be brought to their homes by tankers. Now, a huge religious outburst is accompanying this issue with the problem of... [read more]

The establishment of a new water company in Saudi Arabia has opened up the platform for debates on possible privatization of desalination plants in the Kingdom. In this news item from Arab News newspaper, a expert opinion discusses the potential for privatization   Javid Hassan, Arab News    RIYADH, 2 October 2006 — A leading Saudi water exploration expert says that Jeddah’s water crisis... [read more]

Source: Arab News P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News   JEDDAH, 30 September 2006 — Saudi Arabia yesterday announced plans to establish a national water company to carry out water and sewage projects. The state-owned company will take over the groundwater sector, the distribution of drinking water and the collection and treatment of sewage water. The decision to restructure the ground and... [read more]

The Arab News newspaper has published a moving story on the suffering of some women in Saudi Arabia for fetching drinking water by coupons from tankers in Jeddah. This is the whole text of the story written by Hassna’a Mokhtar & Somayya Jabarti:   JEDDAH, 28 September 2006 — Women, some old and barely standing, others with their children, crowded the six-by-six room at the Aziziya Water... [read more]

Saudi Arabia hosted a distinguished conference on CDM applications with special emphasis on Saudi Arabia, bringing the Kingdom to a new and progressive niche in the global efforts to confront Climate Change and to exploit Kyoto options especially the CDM.   The conference was held from Sep 19th-21st 2006, with a very attractive theme. The theme was "The Kyoto Protocol and Saudi Arabia: (from)... [read more]

As an indication of Saudi Arabia's progressive role in the implementation of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto protocol, the Kingdom is hosting the 1st International conference on CDM that was opened today in Riyadh. The goal of the conference is to provide participants with a conceptual understanding of the financial and economic development benefits that the CDM can provide. You can follow a daily... [read more]