By Hana Namrouqa – Mar 06,2016 Since the launch of a campaign to crack down on water theft in 2013, the Water Ministry has dismantled 21,698 illegal fixtures on water mains and resources (File photo) AMMAN — The Water Ministry on Sunday urged the public to report violations on the water network, underscoring that the […]

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By AP Baghdad Wednesday, 2 March 2016 Iraq has signed a deal with an Italian company to repair and maintain the country’s largest dam near the northern, ISIS-held city of Mosul. The Mosul dam is in danger of a possibly catastrophic collapse. Government spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi, says the contract worth € 275-million, or about $296 […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 03/07/2016 The monitoring station, which was installed in 2001 and updated over the years, measures water quality 24 hours a day based on a number of parameters. The notoriously polluted Kishon River is going online – at least, its water quality results are. Starting on Monday, the Kishon River Authority mad […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 03/03/2016 Government to spend NIS 1 billion for better recycling, waste services. The city of Tel Aviv was given the distinctive title of “Recycler of the Year,” after it came ahead of all other cities in Israel in terms of recycling per capita in 2015. The award, given by the ELA […]

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Salam Mum as Waste Crisis Tests his Patience – Naharnet Prime Minister Tammam Salam shied away over the weekend from revealing details of a plan to resolve Lebanon’s seven-month-long waste crisis after several hurdles on establishing landfills in certain areas were not removed. Al-Liwaa daily said Monday that Salam refused to discuss with his visitors […]

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Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim has filed a lawsuit against the Sukleen and Sukomi firms on charges of “squandering public funds” in their handling of waste management in the country in the past two decades, media reports said on Wednesday. Ibrahim’s move is based on the lawsuit that has been filed by Kataeb Party chief MP […]

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Osama bin Laden wrote a letter calling on the American people to help President Barack Obama fight “catastrophic” climate change and “save humanity”, in the latest evidence of his worries about environmental issues, newly released documents show. The letter was among materials that were seized in the May 2, 2011, U.S. raid on bin Laden’s […]

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By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH 03/02/2016 The scientists reconstructed the Mediterranean’s drought history by studying tree rings as part of an effort to understand the region’s climate and what shifts water to or from the area. A drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean – including Israel and the West Bank, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria […]

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The Palestinian delegation to the UN Environment Program submitted a draft resolution last Wednesday, demanding the UN conduct an assessment of the environmental impact of the recent wars that took place in Gaza, Palestinian media reported. The draft resolution was submitted by the vice president of the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority and the Palestinian representative […]

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The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) produced four short documentaries on the topics of: Desert (Manmade Deserts), Seas (Seas Support Life), Waste (Solid Waste) and Air (The Air We Breathe). Several prominent Arab experts participated in these documentaries, which are intended for television, awareness campaigns and education programs. The documentaries have been made […]

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Regional Youth Camp in Jordan On February 5th and 6th, the Good Water Neighbors (GWN) project organized a regional youth camp at the Sharhabil bin Hassneh EcoPark in Jordan. The participants consisted of alumni and youth from the Jordan Valley, Irbid, Kishon and Muqata watersheds. They learned about the importance of cross-border cooperation and environmental […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Feb 29,2016 AMMAN — Jordan and Germany on Monday signed agreements at a value of 32 million euros to improve water and wastewater services for communities hosting Syrian refugees in the northern and central regions. Water Minister Hazem Nasser and German Ambassador to Jordan Birgitta Siefker-Eberle signed the two agreements, which […]

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As part of its cover story about Waste trade, in the March-April 2016 issue, Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia magazine conducted this interview with Rolph Payet, executive secretary of the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. What types of transboundary moved wastes are controlled by Basel Convention? The Basel Convention […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 03/02/2016 Currently, only 2.6 percent of Israel’s electricity is produced from renewable sources. A renewable energy law could be in the works after the Knesset’s Finance Committee met on Wednesday to discuss the basics before bringing it for an initial reading in the plenum. One of the points that bothered some […]

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by Naharnet Newsdesk 02 March 2016, 21:17 Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim has filed a lawsuit against the Sukleen and Sukomi firms on charges of “squandering public funds” in their handling of waste management in the country in the past two decades, media reports said on Wednesday. Ibrahim’s move is based on the lawsuit that has […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Mar 01,2016 A total of 37 types of migratory soaring birds, which maintain flight by using rising air currents, travel on the Rift Valley-Red Sea Flyway annually (Photo by Muath Freij) AMMAN — With the start of birds’ migration season, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) said Tuesday […]

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James Denselow While it was written that God warned Noah about the coming flood, in Iraq this week it was the US embassy who issued an alert warning that the Mosul Dam could burst. Such is the potential for “catastrophic failure” that the embassy advised that US citizens should leave the Tigris flood plain. As […]

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Big Oil must thwart the movement to leave fossil fuels in the ground, the world’s most powerful oilman said on Tuesday. Addressing executives in Texas, Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said the industry had to shed its “Dark Side” image and show it was a “force for good”. “As an industry, we should be celebrating […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 02/25/2016 Leviathan partners hope to have gas start flowing by the end of 2019 The partners developing the Leviathan natural gas field submitted their detailed development plan to the government on Thursday. Development of the Leviathan natural gas field is being led by Texas-based Noble Energy, Israel’s Delek Group (through its […]

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By Humeyra Pamuk and Seyhmus Cakan Reuters Saturday, 27 February 2016 Turkey has begun work to repair a pipeline taking crude oil from northern Iraq to the Mediterranean through its restive southeast and aims to restore flows soon, the Turkish energy ministry said on Saturday. The pipeline, which has been repeatedly sabotaged in recent months, […]

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