Doha Hosts Gulf Team's Meeting on Air Quality

Doha, April 05 (QNA) - The State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Environment, hosted the third meeting for the team responsible for a predictive study addressing air quality in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in attendance of officials from the Regional West Asia office at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the General Secretariat of the GCC, and specialists from member states. During the meeting, the participants discussed the team's past achievements and showcased data and questionnaires presented by the member states in light of agreements during the team's first and second meetings. This is in addition to revising the first draft of the proposed air quality study and formulating its budget. The need for the study arose from a recommendation by the Environmental Coordination Committee in its 25th meeting in Kuwait on January 25 and 26, 2010 purveying the formation of a special team to conduct a predictive study on air quality. In this regard, the GCC General Secretariat called for convening the first meeting at its headquarters in Riyadh in June 2010. The team viewed the recommendations by the Gulf Green Initiative Committee for Development and Sustainable Environment, which included the team's mission. Most importantly, founding a unified program in line with the GCC member states' systems in order to showcase readings on the air surrounding the region, benefit from specialized consultancies, and reach a predictive model of air quality in the GCC countries. The model crystallizes the main purpose of the study in addition to evaluating some of the sources of visible emissions in these countries and documenting them in the study of air pollutant dissemination. The study also aims to quantify vehicles and classify them according to engine power and average distance travelled daily, then tabulating the data mathematically and setting, preparing, and operating a mathematical program specific to the GCC states to calculate pollutant concentrations in the air and connecting them in one network. Qatar was represented in the meeting by ministry representatives including Water Management Department Head Youssef Al-Hamr, Department of Evaluation and Environmental Permits Head Ahmed Al-Mansouri, and the ministry's Senior Environmental Evaluation Researchers Saeed Seif Akeel, and Lobna Al-Saadi. (QNA)