National network of detection sensors not set up due to budget shortfall. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 22, 2014 The Environmental Protection Ministry has begun setting up a national system for locating and warning about incidents involving hazardous materials. The Defense Ministry assisted in the project, but so far the Finance Ministry has not approved […]

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BEIRUT: Lebanese municipalities lack a waste management strategy to organize trash in their districts, prompting some to collect and dump their waste in other regions, Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk said Saturday. “Some municipalities collect their waste and throw them in other districts randomly and I have proof of that,” Machnouk told a local television station. […]

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Mazin Sidahmed| The Daily Star BEIRUT: The government may handle Lebanon’s growing solid waste problem by installing incinerators across the country, but environmentalists warn this could create more problems than it solves. The government decided on Oct. 30 to open a tender for companies to treat solid waste. The Cabinet is scheduled to be briefed […]

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Green energy activists gathered there for a convention this week as crude oil was gushing out of a broken pipeline nearby. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 11, 2014 The Sixth Annual Eilat-Eilot Green Energy Conference took place in Eilat earlier this week – and its timing this year couldn’t have been more symbolic. Just outside […]

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The recent oil spill in the Arava desert is a costly reminder of the need to reduce the country’s dependence on oil. Haaretz Editorial | Dec. 7, 2014 Last week’s oil spill in a southern Arava nature reserve is not the first case of serious environmental damage caused by the oil pipeline, and if those […]

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The huge spill near Eilat is only one of many problems around the country, the Water Authority says. By Zafrir Rinat | Dec. 7, 2014 Israel’s fuel-pollution problem has been similar over the past decade as it is now in the area racked by an oil spill, Water Authority data show. Over the past decade […]

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By NIV ELIS, YONAH JEREMY BOB 12/10/2014 The pipeline was a joint project between Iran and Israel in 1968, but the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979 crushed the alliance and cooperation. Israel may owe Iran $100 million over the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, which made headlines last week when a breach spilled millions of liters of oil into […]

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By LIAT COLLINS 12/11/2014 When I hear words like “wounds” and “scars” my first association is not with quarries, but following a tour to the Machtesh Ramon area in the South last week, they no longer seem out of place. The Jerusalem Press Club trip was organized by the Quarry Rehabilitation Fund, which operates under […]

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Residents of southern Israel didn’t even know a pipeline was under their feet for 46 years – until it exploded. Haaretz Editorial | Dec. 9, 2014 Residents of Eilat and the surrounding area didn’t know a pipeline had run through their city for the last 46 years – one that could cause the heavy stench […]

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by Hana Namrouqa | Dec 04, 2014 AMMAN — An oil spill in southern Israel near the Jordanian border on Wednesday night created a state of panic among Aqaba residents, dozens of whom went to hospitals after suffering from shortness of breath, according to officials. An oil pipeline rupture caused thousands of cubic metres of […]

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JERUSALEM POST Expected rain spurs worry that Arava oil will spread – Jerusalem Post By NIV ELIS 12/08/2014 Just a few minutes drive north of Eilat, the air already reeks of oil. The arid bouquet of sand and acacia trees one expects in the valley, flanked by red mountains in Jordan and sandstone in Israel, […]

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By JEREMY SHARON 12/08/2014 Air quality in the region is now within accepted standards, removal of the contaminated earth from the large pools is nearly complete. The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company has admitted that some 5 million liters of crude oil spilled out of the pipeline in the Arava region during the catastrophic leak that […]

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9/12/2014 The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) released today the recommendations of its seventh annual conference held in Amman, which addressed food security in Arab countries. The recommendations were finalized by a high-level committee of experts and officials who participated in the conference. AFED secretary general Najib Saab announced the recommendations, which call […]

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MMAN — Through using satellite remote sensing techniques in collaboration with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), authorities have uncovered a major case of water theft, Ministry of Water and Irrigation announced Monday. The ministry has discovered an illegal 1.5km pipe linked to a major water conveyer in the Tneib region in south […]

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Trash has been piling up in the district of Alaya, where waste collectors say they have faced repeated attacks. Karlos Zurutuza Last updated: 08 Dec 2014 Qamishli, Syria – Wheelbarrows have become essential for living in Alaya, a district of Qamishli, about 700km northeast of Damascus. Local residents dump their garbage almost anywhere in the […]

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By NIV ELIS 12/08/2014 In 2014, renewable energy use in Israel is expected to rise to 1.5-2%, still far from the 10% goal set for 2020. Energy Minister Silvan Shalom on Monday caused a stir at the Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy conference by announcing, to audible hissing in the crowd, that the government will change its […]

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Can solar power replace oil in the Middle East? The Middle East can achieve first-move advantage in a market that appears to be the longer-term future of energy. Vicente Lopez-Ibor Mayor Vicente Lopez-Ibor Mayor is a former commissioner of the National Energy Commission of Spain. He is chair of one of Europe’s largest solar energy […]

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By YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ, DAVID LEHRER 12/07/2014 20 percent renewables by 2020. Election time in Israel means that little will get done by the government in the months leading up to the vote. But when it comes to renewable energy – something that this government has failed to deliver in any meaningful way – the […]

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BEIRUT: Israel is overtly stealing Lebanon’s underwater oil and gas reserves off the coast of south Lebanon as the government remains distracted over the issue of its kidnapped soldiers and policemen held by jihadi militants, Speaker Nabih Berri warned in comments published Monday. Daily Al-Akhbar quoted Berri as saying that he had received credible information […]

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by Mohammad Ghazal | Dec 08, 2014 AMMAN — A Canadian company will soon start studies on the development of the Hamzah Oil Field in Al Azraq, Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed said Monday. The company, Transeuro Energy Corporation, won a tender the government floated in early 2014 to develop the oil field, the minister said. […]

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