Reuters, Dubai Tuesday, 19 August 2014 The Mosul Dam was always meant to be a symbol of Iraq’s grandiose ambition to escape poverty and underdevelopment. But from the start, the $1.5 billion barrier north of the city was beset with significant engineering problems, now made worse after it became the center of a battle between […]

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21 August 2014 With no solution in sight for an end to the current conflict, UNRWA is doing what it can to meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza. Since 13 July, internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been sheltering in UNRWA schools. The Agency continues to prioritize the health and safety of the displaced, including […]

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19/08/2014 GAZA CITY (AFP) — Feriel al-Zaaneen hasn’t had a shower in more than a month. Like thousands of Palestinians, she doesn’t have enough water to wash, adding to the miseries of life in war-battered Gaza. In searing summer heat, where temperatures can reach 93 Fahrenheit, Feriel is one of more than 218,000 refugees sheltering […]

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Lebanese campaign to save water amid a shortage is unlikely to work without government regulation, experts say. Sophie Cousins Last updated: 24 Aug 2014 Beirut, Lebanon – Plastered across billboards, flashing across television screens, and splashed on pamphlets and stickers, a new message is suddenly everywhere you look in Lebanon: “If you love me, save […]

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Mohammed Zaatari| The Daily Star BISRI, Lebanon: Residents have cautiously welcomed the signing of a loan agreement paving the way for the construction of a water dam in the Jezzine town of Bisri, as the project, first proposed a decade ago, makes headway. The agreement to secure the loan was formalized earlier this month between […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 08/24/2014 By integrating drip and micro irrigation technologies within the world’s rice paddies, farmers can simultaneously contribution to the international struggle against greenhouse gas emissions and increase their crop yields, according to Israeli irrigation giant Netafim. In conjunction with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Netafim has long been studying rice crops in […]

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A public project in Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre is not only giving pedestrians the right of way, but letting them rule the road once a week with car-free evenings called “Mashe Lanemshe,” meaning Come on, let’s walk. Every Saturday evening from 6 p.m. to midnight, a strip along Tyre’s coast from the Islamic University […]

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BEIRUT: Civil Defense fire brigades, assisted by municipality workers and residents, are struggling to extinguish a fire that broke out in the vicinity of millennia-old cedar trees in Maaser al-Chouf, southeast of Beirut, Thursday. According to a Civil Defense spokesperson, the fire started in a pine forest between Maaser al-Chouf and the adjacent village of […]

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Mazin Sidahmed| The Daily Star Al-MARJ, Lebanon: “Put the safety on until the gun is in the right position,” Khaled Saleh tells his niece Dareen Saleh as she positions her Maxim, a wide 12mm automatic rifle made in Turkey, just below her collar bone. She heeds his advice as she takes aim at a plastic […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 08/20/2014 In attempt to curb illegal waste dumping throughout the capital, the Jerusalem Municipality is soon to be training officers how to be more vigilant in enforcing against such activity. A pilot course on the subject, which would initially train 25 environmental agents in the city’s waste disposal enforcement department, is to […]

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The Politics of Assessment: Water and Sanitation MDGs in the Middle East Neda Zawahri, Jeannie Sowers and Erika Weinthal Development and Change 42(5): 1153–1177. ABSTRACT The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is generally considered to be making adequate progress towards meeting Target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which calls for halving the […]

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August 5, 2014 As this blog is published, the dark clouds of war continue to cast their shadow over the Middle East. The enormous loss of innocent lives, the fear and the terror that Palestinians and Israelis are subjected to and subject each other to, have left too many of us stunned in silence. This […]

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by Mohammad Ghazal | Aug 13, 2014 AMMAN —The Attarat Power Company on Wednesday said it is awaiting the government’s response on when to sign agreements to go ahead with its $2.4 billion oil shale-fuelled power plant. “The government approved the deal… but it seems the National Electric Power [Company] is still waiting for official […]

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AMMAN — Jordan will sign an agreement with Russia in September to start conducting studies on the country’s first nuclear reactor for power generation, Khaled Toukan, chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission, said Thursday. “The Cabinet approved signing a project development agreement with Russia and we will sign the deal with the Russian partners […]

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AMMAN — British Petroleum (BP) ended its gas exploration activities in the Risheh Field because it estimated the field’s gas reserves to be unfeasible, Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed said on Thursday. At a meeting with board members of the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company, the minister said BP found natural gas reserves under deep layers and […]

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BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt has questioned the management of Lebanon’s potential gas and oil reserves, warning against subjecting Lebanon’s national resources to political dueling. “I questioned the withdrawal of some of the major oil companies from bidding in the Lebanese oil market,” he said in his weekly column in the PSP’s newspaper, […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 08/11/2014 One such success includes the sentencing of Alfonso Hasson to imprisonment for operating a pirate waste transfer station in a Bnei Brak. Over the past year, the country’s justice system has significantly strengthened enforcement activity against ecological violations, the Environmental Protection Ministry informed The Jerusalem Post on Monday. Examining various events […]

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by SHARON UDASIN 08/06/2014 Opposition MP in Ankara: Both our governments are missing out on economic, peace opportunities. Natural gas export from Israel’s Leviathan reservoir to Turkey will remain impossible as long as the Israel-Gaza conflict persists, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Monday. Only after a permanent cease-fire has been declared and stability […]

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Sunday, 10 August 2014 The Iraqi conflict – where Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, Iraq Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces, and Iraq government forces – battle for control, is largely over water, oil and power, instead of religion, according to an article in UK-based newspaper The Sunday Times. Much of the world’s media attention […]

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Osama Habib| The Daily Star BEIRUT: The United States proposed three different ways of resolving a dispute between Lebanon and Israel over offshore borders, according to a classified proposal obtained by The Daily Star. The proposal, which was handed to a few Lebanese and Israeli officials in July 2013, was aimed at breaking the deadlock […]

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