Government officials and industry leaders are set to commence new and cooperative strategies for better managing the region’s waste as the 2nd Middle East Waste Summit (MEWS) draws to a close today (Thursday, May 20, 2010). Since its opening on May 18, 2010 at the Palladium in DubaiMediaCity, the Summit has been engaging the world’s leading industry experts, government officials, project managers and environmentalists in in-depth presentations, discussions and debates on the region’s most pressing waste and recycling management issues.
DubaiMunicipality launched the inaugural edition of MEWS last year to provide a unifying venue for addressing the region’s waste problems. This year’s Summit was held under the patronage of H. H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and Industry and Chairman of Dubai Municipality.MEWS 2010 began with an opening ceremony titled ‘Global Climate Change and the Waste Industry’ chaired by Eng. Hassan Makki, Director of Waste Management at Dubai Municipality.
The ceremony also included a speech by H.E. Obaid Bin Essa Ahmed, Executive Director of the Municipalities Coordination Office and In-Charge of Environment Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water. Ahmed discussed major government initiatives and positive trends affecting the Emirates’ waste management efforts such as the upcoming creation of the National Centre for Cleaner Production. Over 200 business leaders actively participated in the event’s comprehensive programme of international and regional keynote speeches, expert panel discussions, presentations and case studies, and interactive roundtable discussions.
“The international attendance we have witnessed this year proves that the Summit has emerged as a reputable platform for tackling one of the region’s most serious and yet underestimated challenges. More importantly, we have observed a better appreciation of how we need to adopt a unified approach to waste management, as reflected by the cooperative strategies that have resulted from the activities of the past three days. MEWS will continue its mission to make the Middle East a more eco-friendly, business, lifestyle and travel location,” said Chris Fountain, Managing Director of event organizers, Turret Middle East.
“Right from the opening day, participants promoted the urgency of coming up with viable, practical and sustainable approaches to the waste issue. The balance of government, industry and expert representatives also enabled more well-rounded dialogues that assessed the impact of waste across the social, environmental and economic domains. This was an excellent follow-through to the summit’s successful introduction last year,” added Fountain.
Among the international experts who participated in MEWS 2010 were Dr. Andreas Moening, CEO of the German Association for Waste Management, Fareed I. Bushehri, Regional DTIE Officer of the UN Environment Programme, Sarah Sanders Hewett, Principal Consultant of Hong Kong’s Environmental Resources Management, and Richard Thompson, Technical Officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Obsolete Pesticide Programme in Italy. This year’s summit discussions centered on waste avoidance and resource management; policy, regulation and enforcement issues in waste; waste to energy; strategies for municipal waste and recycling; landfills; and construction and industrial waste management.
The inaugural Middle East Waste Summit welcomed 2,691 industry professionals from 53 countries and 1,759 exhibition visitors. It generated greater awareness on the growing waste threat in a region where several countries rank among the top waste producers in the world due to rapid development and population growth.
