ERWDA Board Urges Stricter Environmental Regulations
Gulf News - By Nissar Roath, Staff Reporter, Abu Dhabi,08/04/2004

Recommends standard code of practice, imposition of punitive steps

The Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (Erwda) Board of Directors has called for tougher environmental laws.

The call made at a meeting held on Tuesday at Erwda headquarters, recommended laying down a standard code of practice and the imposition of punitive measures against establishments that do not adhere to rules, running the risk of causing an environmental or public health disaster.

The meeting also reviewed and approved a detailed report on agency projects for 2003 in addition to examining the agency budget for 2004.

Other board members who attended the meeting included Sheikh Mohammed bin Butti Al Hamed, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Municipality and Town Planning Department, Hamad Abdul Rahman Al Madfa, Minister of Health, Mohammed Al Bowardi, the agency's Managing Director, Ahmed Al Sayegh, board member and Majid Al Mansouri, the agency Secretary General.

Suggestions

The board directed the agency to consider toughening up rules for the use of pesticides in farms and investing more resources into helping to grow residue-free crops.

The meeting discussed the development of the Air Quality Monitoring and Management Study for the emirate of Abu Dhabi and directed the agency to review and evaluate the Environmental Strategy Plan for the Emirate in addition to training UAE nationals in scientific and management study.

The board lauded Erwda's efforts to study harmful algal blooms in an investigation which aims to obtain full information about the harmful and other phytoplankton species available, as well as ascertain factors influencing blooms and its effect on the environment, economy and public health.

The meeting also reviewed a system developed by Erwda to evaluate, permit and monitor new projects, existing plants/activities and environmental assessment of safety and risk.

Members also reviewed a flexible approach developed to control the trading of chemical and hazardous materials, pesticides, radioactive material, hazardous waste and medical waste.

They also reviewed Erwda's efforts to permit environmental service providers, laboratories and qualified consultants to perform environmental studies for related activities and industries.

Urgent Action Needed to Protect the Marine Environment
New York, 20/11/2001

- The negative effects of land-based activities on seas and coasts are growing both in scale and type, and are increasingly damaging the environment, scientists are warning.

In a report, produced as a contribution to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting of environment ministers in Montreal next week, the world's leading marine scientists call for "urgent action" to address the most serious problems associated with land-based activities.

With a warning that, "the economic costs of failing to take action to control land based activities are enormous," they single out sewage, the physical alteration and destruction of habitat, excessive nutrient inputs and changes in sediment flows, as top priorities for action.

The scientists' say that the root causes of the marine environmental damage are poverty, poorly managed social and economic development, and unsustainable consumption patterns.

The report, "Protecting the Oceans from Land-based Activities" was jointly produced by GESAMP, the United Nations sponsored Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection. It was initiated by UNEP as an input to the first intergovernmental review meeting of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA). The meeting, which will bring together senior representatives from over 100 governments, (including ministers), various international organizations, global and regional non-governmental groups, and the private sector, runs from 26-30 November in Montreal.

"The oceans cover 71 per cent of our planet's surface, regulate its climate, and provide its ultimate waste disposal system. And, yet, our species continues to treat them as our common sewer," said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director.

"Marine and coastal ecosystems are of vital importance to human well-being. Their value has been estimated at around US$13 trillion. This is equal to one half of annual global GNP," Toepfer continued. "Yet, we continue to treat coasts and oceans as if they were not an important economic resource for developing and developed countries alike," he said.

In Washington D.C. in November 1995, 108 Governments and the European Commission committed themselves to protect and preserve the coastal and marine environment by adopting GPA. The GPA called on countries to develop programmes of action to protect human health and the environment. More specifically, it called for action to prevent, reduce and control land-based activities that contribute to the degradation of the marine environment, such as sewage, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, radioactive substances, oils/hydro-carbons, litter, nutrients, sediment and habitat destruction.

Six years after the Washington conference the first "inter-governmental" review meeting of the GPA will assess the progress made by these countries, as well as launching new initiatives and action on these complex issues. This UNEP meeting will be co-hosted by Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. There will be an official opening at 10 a.m. on Monday 26 November 2001. A high-level "ministerial" segment is scheduled for 29 and 30 November.

"Almost all, some 80 percent, of the environmental problems of the oceans start on land," said Klaus Toepfer. "It is here that most of the pollution originates, whether from factories and sewage works at the coast, from fertliser or pesticides washed into rivers and down to the sea, or from chemicals emitted from car exhausts and industry and carried by the winds far out to the oceans."

The GPA has been singled out sewage as a "priority pollutant" for action. Many studies show that diseases and infections among bathers rise steadily in step with the amount of sewage in the water. They demonstrate also that bathers are at risk even in lightly contaminated waters that meet the pollution standards laid down by the European Union and the US Environmental Protection Agency. A recent World Health Organization study (referenced in the GESAMP report below) has estimated that one in every 20 bathers in "acceptable waters" will become ill after venturing just once into the sea.

"Sewage ruins large areas for fisheries, recreation and tourism, causing major economic loss," said Toepfer. "It also poses considerable risk to the health of bathers and consumers of marine foodstuffs. Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and hepatitis are frequently traced to pathogen-contaminated seafood and bathing waters," he said.

According to the GESAMP report eating sewage-contaminated shellfish raw causes some 2.5 million cases of infectious hepatitis each year. This results in 25,000 fatalities and the same number of long-term disabilities due to liver damage, all of which amounts to the loss of 3.2 million productive work years, or an economic impact of some $10 billion annually.

In Montreal, Ministers and other senior government officials will review an action plan on sewage. Known as the Strategic Action Plan on Municipal Wastewater, it might serve as a model for other key pollutants. They will also get a progress report on the GPA and decide on a work programme for the years ahead. The outcomes of the Montreal meeting will also feed into important upcoming events such as the International Conference on Freshwater in Bonn and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in September