Experts in meteorology and the environment are expected to present practical solutions for waste handling in large cities at the First Jeddah Environmental Forum. The forum is scheduled to begin on Monday through Wednesday, under the patronage of Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General. It is organized by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and supervised by the Saudi Meteorology and Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA.) More than 30 international experts will participate in the forum, headed by Dr. Farouk Al-Baz, a leading Arab-American scientist who was involved with the Apolo lunar landing program. “The forum will focus on the main issues, such as sustainable development and water and air pollution,” Dr. Mohamed Al-Jehani, head of the First Jeddah Environmental Forum said. “The recommendations will be prepared by a number of experts and specialists who will focus on finding solutions to water shortage problems in the whole world.” “More than 50 million people can't have fresh water on a daily basis,” he added. “Some people expect that the next great war will be over water.” He said that urban waste is considered a very serious issue in many countries, especially in the Middle East. “Garbage depends on personal behavior first, because it's part of everyone's daily life,” said Jehani. “The real suffering comes from the health problems that arise because of the accumulation of garbage spread in random areas in developing countries.” He added that one of the ways waste disposal can be controlled is by monitoring disposal methods of businesses and keeping it in check before it becomes life threatening. “Incineration is a method known to be safe, provided that it's done outside city limits,” said Jehani, “so that the resulting smoke wouldn't affect the respiratory systems of humans and cause allergies.” To dispose of garbage in a healthy way, he added, “there has to be a location designed specifically to handle garbage.” “Such a facility should be able to accommodate garbage trucks, and calculate the amount of trash in each of them and what district they came from. It should also have a filtering system to dispose of the gas that results from incineration, so that chances for pollution are minimized.” Garbage Fires and water pollution from sewers, polluted rain water, industrial waste and insects pesticides are the main reasons of pollution in Jeddah, he added. __
