Riyadh meeting steps up action on environment

The Higher Commission for Environment Protection in Riyadh has decided to close down unlicensed businesses and also move all cement factories within city limits to the outskirts of Riyadh within four years. The commission took these decisions during its ninth meeting on Sunday evening in the Al-Safarat Quarter. The meeting was chaired by Riyadh Gov. Prince Sattam, who is chairman of the commission, with deputy chairman Prince Mohammad bin Sa’ad also attending. The meeting discussed topics related to the environment in Riyadh, adding the commission had also visited some of the places under discussion, commission member and projects chief Ebrahim Al-Sultan said. The meeting also considered the work process of the committee formed by Prince Sattam that specializes in determining harmful environmental activities and enterprises. The committee can enable authorities to revoke the licenses of offending businesses or take action against them. The final report of the technical committee was also presented. The report recorded all negative environmental industrial activities in south Riyadh. About 587 polluting enterprises and factories in the municipalities of Al-Shifa, Ha’er, Sulay and Aziziya were involved in making furniture, building equipment, and processing feed and fertilizers. The meeting decided to close unlicensed businesses and take action against them in order to limit others planning to set up these harmful activities in residential areas. The commission also decided to set up regulations for areas that experience the majority of such polluting activities, including Scheme 196 on Al-Kharj Road, the wood factories in Al-Mansouriya, the mechanic garages in Ha’el, factories in city neighborhoods and the Al-Rajhi land scheme. The prince also directed the commission to study and act on the increase in air pollution. The commission said the committee examining this problem explained the factors affecting environment are many, but sandstorms remain the main source of pollution. The meeting studied the results of the surveys of the Civil Defense committee in Riyadh that talked about the excessive pollution caused by many departments and factories while they finished developmental projects. They also reported many projects did not take into consideration environment evaluation studies. The commission is also looking into the immediate removal of all unlicensed crushers and mixers in Al Jafi and Al Armah, and stopping the activities of crushers not conforming to regulations. The meeting confirmed the transfer of seepage tanks used for sanitation to a park to serve residential areas with an area of 3 sq. km. It decided to add more developments to the Wadi Laban park. As a result, the concentration of car rental businesses there will move to another place. The meeting examined the possibility of supplying the Thomama area with a variety of plants. A project to plant more than 80,000 trees will be applied there. As part of this program a seed bank was set up where local seeds were gathered and classified.