By Hana Namrouqa – Feb 16,2016 AMMAN — Scavengers digging through trash bins in Amman are driving away millions of dinars of potential investments in the capital’s waste collection and segregation, a municipal official said on Tuesday. Waste picking is no longer practised by the needy but rather by people who have turned the practice […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 02/15/2016 The latest version of the legislation debated by the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee would require a 10-agorot fee per disposable plastic bag. Israel may be getting closer to charging a fee for plastic bags after members of Knesset met on Monday but some worry the cheap price that has […]

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The cabinet announced Thursday that it will return to a waste management plan based on “sanitary landfills” if the British firm negotiating with the state over trash export fails to submit the required documents by Friday. “The prime minister explained the circumstances during which only one firm was chosen for the trash export plan,” Information […]

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The Council for Development and Reconstruction snapped back at Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel on Thursday after he accused it of being responsible for the corruption in the waste file. “It’s been a while that the CDR has become the target of a series of accusations that it has been avoiding to respond,” the […]

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Prime Minister Tammam Salam denied Thursday that forged documents have been used by a firm seeking to ship Lebanon’s accumulating trash to Russia, noting that Moscow has expressed its willingness to help the country in this regard through its top diplomat Sergei Lavrov. “We are certainly not witnessing an attempt to forge documents in the […]

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The ministerial committee tasked with following up on the months long trash management file kicked off a meeting at the Grand Serail on Saturday after the export plan failed to rid the country of its piling garbage. “Discussions are to focus on reviving the plan to establish landfills in several areas in Lebanon,” Education Minister […]

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Prime minister appears in court in unprecedented move, saying Israel had to act on its gas fields now, and arguing that ‘any further delay could lead to grave, significant and long-term damage to the State of Israel.’ Telem Yahav, Yael Friedson 02.14.16 In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the Supreme Court […]

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riday, 12 February 2016 The Iraqi government once again warned of the increasing threat of the collapse of the Mosul dam. A source from the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office said that if the dam was to collapse, then it will cause a disaster 1000 times worse than Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in the […]

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Saturday, 13 February 2016 Smart cities were very much on the agenda at the World Government Summit, held in Dubai last week. Experts on the subject discussed the various dimensions of smart cities, from digital transformation to agile governance, and their challenges and enablers. As part of the process to encourage government sector to take […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Feb 10,2016 AMMAN — Authorities have unveiled four major violations on water resources in west Amman’s Wadi Al Seer, where suspects dug illegal wells inside their houses and an auto repair shop. The suspects sold the stolen water to the public, an official at the Water Ministry, who spoke on condition […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Feb 11,2016 AMMAN — The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) seized and confiscated weapons of unlicensed hunters of a Gulf Arab nationality who were allegedly hunting desert birds in the Eastern Badia, a conservationist said Thursday. RSCN inspectors discovered the three hunters during an inspection patrol on Wednesday […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Feb 10,2016 A view of the Dibbeen Forest Reserve. Forestry lands amount to 1.5 million dunums, 350,000 of which are nature reserves, according to the Agriculture Minsitry (Photo courtesy of Royal Society for Conservation of Nature) AMMAN — A total of 479 trees were chopped down illegally last month, according to […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 02/11/2016 As part of the Electronic Waste Law, the overall goal for 2015 was for 20 percent of the total weight of electronic equipment sold annually by manufacturers and importers in Israel to be recycled. Though it is still common see old fax machines and fridges on the side of the […]

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Information Minister Ramzi Jreij asserted on Friday that the contract to export Lebanon’s garbage will be signed next week as soon as the Council for Development and Reconstruction receives an original copy of the Russian consent. “The contract to export the waste will be signed next week either on Tuesday or Wednesday after the CDR […]

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The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, along with oil company BP, organized a clean-up on Wednesday in the area around Al Wathba Wetland Reserve to mark National Environment Day. The event attracted 105 students and teachers and 69 members of other organizations who removed 1,676 kilograms of rubbish, mostly plastic and wood waste, metal, glass and […]

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The Associated Press, Baghdad Wednesday, 10 February 2016 Iraq’s Mosul Dam has long been branded the world’s most dangerous dam, at risk of collapsing and sending water crashing over millions of people. That prospect is even greater than was previously believed after ISIS captured the dam briefly in 2014, according to a new report by […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 02/09/2016 Haifa has a number of “hot spots” where rates of cancer, asthma and abnormalities in babies are higher than average. Environmental groups and members of Knesset remained unsatisfied on Tuesday, the day after initial findings from the Haifa pollution and sickness report were discussed publicly. At the Knesset’s Internal Affairs […]

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by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 February 2016, 14:00 Health Minister Wael Abou Faour denied on Wednesday a link between Lebanon’s trash crisis and the rise of H1N1 cases, saying at least four people died of swine flu this year. “Scientifically speaking, there is no direct or indirect link between the garbage and swine flu,” Abou Faour […]

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Author: MENA Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) Chief Ahmed Abouel Saud said on Tuesday that the Environment Ministry will carry out this year a project to cultivate rooftops on houses, adding that this project will be carried out in collaboration with NGOs. Abouel Saud added that there has been coordination with the Social Solidarity Ministry […]

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By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN 02/08/2016 The Finance Committee held the meeting at the request of the Ministry’s which wants changes made to fishing regulations in an attempt to prevent fish depletion. Things turned fishy at the Knesset on Monday when the Agriculture Ministry called for increased regulations on net fishing, and one MK accused the […]

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