Shura Council

The Shura Council discussed the statement of H.E. Mohammed bin Salim al Tobi, Minister of Environment and Climate Affairs, who presented his ministry's statement during the 21st sitting of the third annual session (2017-2018) of the eighth term (2015-2019) presided by H.E. Sheikh Khalid bin Hilal Al-Mawali, Chairman of A’Shura Council, in the presence of the members of the Council and H.E. Sheikh Ali bin Nasser Al Mahrouqi, Secretary General of the Council.
 
The Minister’s Statement
 
The statement of the Minister of the Environment and the Climate Affairs included six key themes covering the development of the environment and climate affairs sector, training and qualification of national cadres, coordination with environmental authorities, environmental licensing, international agreements on environmental issues, and a special focus on the Ministry and its relationship with the civil society.
 
Development of the Environment and Climate Affairs Sector
 
The first theme tackled the main features of the environmental sector in the Sultanate and the active working partners with the environmental work system which share the role and responsibilities of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs in setting the general policies and preparing the necessary plans and programs to protect the environment as well as the challenges facing the ministry and the aspirations that the Ministry seeks to achieve.
 
 
In an endeavor to promote the system of the legislative work of the Ministry,  the Minister of Environment and Climate Affairs said that the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs has prepared a draft law on "Integrated Waste Management". It is currently working on updating the list of the use of plastic bags to reduce their risks to the environment, human health, sustainability of ecosystems and biodiversity, in addition to the regulations of marine environment and emissions from fixed sources as well as the regulations organizing the of work of the crushers.
 
H.E. Al Tobi also talked about the modern technologies and infrastructure as part of the Ministry’s efforts to develop environmental work. He pointed out that factories with large environmental impact are monitored by the CEMS, a system that allows the Ministry to monitor these factories on an ongoing basis and such factories are obliged to install CCTV cameras to monitor emissions directly.
 
He further added that the Ministry has expanded early warning system for radiation monitoring, as it worked on establishing an early warning system for radiation in the Sultanate consisting of (8) field monitoring stations distributed in a number of governorates of the Sultanate and linked to a central control room in the ministry to monitor, analyze and display the monitored readings. The statement touched upon the National Strategy and the Biodiversity Action Plan, which have been implemented in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). This strategy reflects the Sultanate's vision in the field of biodiversity and technical and legislative aspects in this area. This strategy is currently being updated in line with the global strategy of biodiversity (2011-2020).
 
 
Enhancing Environmental Database Research
 
The Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the SQU to prepare three Environmental studies to observe sea water and air quality. Further to that, there is a cooperation between the Ministry and the Omani Environment Association to start up a project to safeguard whales and dolphins in term of technical and environmental obstacles.
 
The Minister said that the Sultanate faces climatic and environmental obstacles such as increase of water demand, decrease of underground water quality and sea resources, natural disasters and climate change. The Ministry plans to establish center for evaluation and issuance of permissions in Sohar and Governorate of Burami and improve the performance of Governorates Directorates in term of observation and environmental inspection, planning and development of environmental policies, said H.E. Al Tobi.
 
Environmental Permissions
 
The statement included the role of the Ministry to grant the environmental permissions through the Environmental Evaluation Centre which is responsible to issue permissions for the environmental projects through conducting environmental impact studies within a period not exceeding 30 days.  In this context, the Ministry has issued regulations for the environmental permissions. The Minister statement highlighted the benefit of the Sultanate accession to the International convention on environment and climate affairs.  The final section of the statement was on the Ministry efforts concerning environmental awareness and supporting civil society associations through publishing the environmental publications which contain various issues of the environment.
 
 The members raised a number of questions on hike of environment fess, absence of the Ministry during the climate conditions in Al Wusta and Dhofar Governorates and assignment the crushers licenses to the Mining Authority. They also inquire about the Ministry’s efforts to evaluate the best international environmental practices of the advanced countries (Singapore, America and Switzerland).