Legal measures against violators of environmental standards

Manama, Jan. 5 (BNA): Personal Representative of HM the King and President of the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE), HH Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, has stressed that the SCE’s efforts to strengthen its supervision on installations to verify their compliance with environmental standards and requirements are in line with its commitment to implementing policies and strategies that protect the environment and, at the same time, ensure the smooth flow of investments without obstacles. HH Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad pointed out that the SCE had adopted an integrated plan to prepare the inspection team for monitoring various environmental aspects, noting that the team had managed to conduct a regulatory field survey in 2018 that covered 1,700 service and industrial facilities to ascertain the extent of their compliance with environmental standards and requirements. He said that inspections and field surveys conducted during 2018, twice for each facility, had reported violations in more than 530 facilities that did not comply with the requirements, noting that the inspection team had developed appropriate solutions to rectify these irregularities. HH Shaikh Abdulla added that the SCE had adopted a new strategy for monitoring and inspecting the facilities in 2019, focusing mainly on industrial and productive facilities through the establishment of a carefully-studied monitoring programme for inspection and verification that would be implemented by a number of rehabilitated SCE’s inspectors to verify the facilities’ compliance with standards, and their impact on the environment in Bahrain. The inspection team will monitor the nature of the industrial processes of these facilities, determine the chemicals used in the production processes, their safety and compliance with the regulations adopted by the SCE, the method of storage and handling during the production processes, the monitoring and measurement of air and water emissions during operations and production, and their compliance with the standards adopted in the Kingdom, he said, noting that the aim is to ensure the reduction of harmful emissions in the air, protect the marine environment from any excesses that would affect the sustainability of food and water security. The inspection team will also inspect the industrial waste produced by these factories and monitor the mechanism of its treatment or disposal in accordance with the procedures and decisions approved by the SCE, as well as those of the international conventions in the field of protection from industrial waste ratified by Bahrain, he added. The SCE president affirmed that the implementation of the plan in 2019 would have a very positive impact on the environmental and economic levels, stressing that the SCE will take appropriate legal measures against industrial facilities that violate the requirements and standards, and harm human health and the environment in the Kingdom.