Environmental Management Plan: Abu Dhabi - Case Study Example

Environmental Management Plan Abu Dhabi-Case Study Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Insert Date Here (Day, Month, Year) Introduction The Environment Management System has been formulated to control pollution and sustain conducive environment helping in improving the environment. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Environment Management System is “part of the overall practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy.” (Olson 1999: 170). Its main concern has been the proper implementation of the environment management practices forming the framework according to which environment agencies can carry out policies and procedures conducive for their effective management and reduction of the pollution. At Abu Dhabi, environment agency through its various activities and projects aims to provide sustainable environment ensuring healthy and safe life and helps to protect and conserve natural resources. This agency takes forward their environment management plan by establishing proper mechanism to help reduce pollution and reduce the negative impacts occurring on account of the development activities in the Emirates. The base of the Environment Management plan lies on the system Plan Do Check and Act method, whereby planning means identification of the goals of the environment and its various aspects; Do means implementing the plan including monitoring and preparing action plan; Check means monitoring the effective implementation of the plans; and Acting means reviewing including making the progress review and forming the action plans to impart necessary changes for the Environment Management System which can result in the benefit of both the business and environment.. (Rashed, Hasaneen, Edward & Dwagi 2008: 383) Pollution in Abu Dhabi The main environment concern of the Abu Dhabi city is the air pollution on account of the increase in the emissions of the “sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ground-level ozone (O3), particular matter (PM10) and lead (Pb).” (Environmental Agency 2009: Online). The important source of air pollution in Abu Dhabi is the oil and gas industry followed by the power and transportation sectors. Companies like Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and its group of companies are the immersing maximum pollutants i.e. gases from exploration and production, refining, gas processing, and petrochemicals industry. Oil and gas industry is the most prominent source of pollutants, major being power plants, line sources like major roads, diffuse areas like petrol stations, chemical storage areas and small scale industries. Besides these are oil refineries, oil gathering centers, oil platforms, petrochemical and fertilizer plants and power and desalination plants. Majority of the gas emissions in UAE are CO2, methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorine compounds. In fact even the burning of fossil fuels are also major source of pollutants and main cause of emissions from greenhouse. Currently nation has largest amount of CO2 emissions in the world. (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company 2007: Online) General Directorate of Civil Defence To this effect, The General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD) was established to meet emerging needs of the growing urbanization and industrial development taking place all over the nation. It is mandatory on part of The General Directorate of Civil Defense to follow the legislation, which could become the legal basis of the GDCD, “- Law no.3 of 1979 on Federal Civil Defence; - Federal law no.1 of 1992 amending certain clauses of Law no.3 of 1979; - Federal law no.1 of 1995 amending certain clauses of Law no.3 of 1979; - Ministerial Decision No.154 Of 1991 On Fire Prevention In Public And Private” (International Civil Defence Directory: Online) The United Arab Emirates Civil Defence has formulated regulations for the prevention of fire according to the prevalent international norms and in accordance with the decision of the ministers for prevention of fire in the private as well as public places. The new federal law has been formulated to put the control on the radioactive resources for reducing risks that may arouse from its use. Regulations have also been drafted to handle the dangerous as well as toxic waste materials. (International Civil Defence Directory: Online) Environment Management System and reduction of the Pollution The environment management system under the ISO 14001:2004, has made it mandatory by the organizations including the Civil Defence Directorate at Abu Dhabi to control and reduce the activities that would cause increase in pollution. This management system acts as a systematic tool to bring in the improvement in the performance and impart in the most systematic way for managing the environment’s concern of the civil defense. Civil defense in all its activities whether it is rescue operations on account of the major disasters or development of the activities and in prevention of the fire should abide by the EMS model of the Emergency Defense system. This EMS model should follow the Plan -Do-Check-Act Cycle, or PDCA. The model follows first the formulation of the environmental policy, making plans of the EMS and then implementing it. This process also involves keeping check of the system as well as implementing it. Its ISO 14000 refers to the standards and guidance documents that could help the civil defense to meet all the environment issues. Civil defense, while adhering to the Environment Management System formulates the policy to control the fire and risk to it in all the public as well as private affairs. According to ISO 14001, the Civil Defence should maintain emergency management plans but however the system could vary according the condition and situation. It is the duty of the Civil Defence to adopt every measure and step to reduce and prevent any disaster and decrease its effects but along with it they have to look that the environment is also not affected. They help in reducing pollution, waste and resource consumption at various levels in the organisation and for maintaining development. For their day-to-day activities, they help the Environment Protection Division for protecting, increasing and conserving the environment. It helps in the implementation of the most adequate management practices with the help of the monitoring and in the utilization of the legal and technical instruments. They should see that the equipments they use must not produce harmful gases. In today’s global scenario, the biggest threat on the environment for any nation is the threat of nuclear bombs, biological threat, chemical threat and similar threats. Each threat includes preventive measures that can involve civilian life. These are not only harmful for the nation but also for the whole environment. The National Environmental Strategy and the National Action Plan of the UAE The Federal Environment Agency formed the National Environmental Strategy and the National Environmental Action Plan for the UAE. This action plan was started in 2002, as regards the national policies for conservation of the natural resources and its sustainable use. These strategies were used in the context of the conservation of the sustained natural resources and the sectors they covered included Municipalities, Water Resources, Marine Environment, Planning and Urban Environment, Agriculture and Land, Oil and Gas etc. UAE has been taking care of wildlife and protection of endangered species since early times and a series of marine protected areas were established. To take this step further, The Federal Environmental Agency is carrying out a preliminary study to protect the areas in UAE. As per its initiative, the Ministry of Communication is also initiating its plan to secure life and belongings in air, sea and on lands and as the initiative to have a know about the climatic change in the country, Government is forming an administration for metrology equipping it with satellites. Under the legal Framework, UAE issued Law No 24 for the protection of the Environment and development of the same in 1999. It includes development of natural resources, sustaining bio diversity, development of wild life environment resources, increasing the ways it could protect and develop agricultural areas. Almost all the wastewater in the Abu Dhabi is treated and again used. Emirates of Abu Dhabi set up Abu Dhabi Sewerage Services Company (ADSSC) with assets having value of US$2.45 billion. ADSSC is also envisaging the building of four treatment plants to treat the amount of wastes increasingly spread from the development activities and for the collection of the medical wastes, there are two private companies. (UAE Report To UNCCD 2002: Online) Other Initiatives to reduce Pollution Fire also results in emission of harmful gases and its spill over can cause extensive damage to the surrounding areas and the environment. To reduce the extent of the fire and threat to environment, ADCD can help initiate in more fuel efficient buildings, fire engines and cars and reducing of the large quantity of harmful foam during the process of training and reducing harmful water run off during large fires into rivers or sea where marine life could be effected. The high level quantity of fluorosurfactant foam is used for both the extinction of fire, cooling and vapour suppression which can cause liters of firewater run-off that could get contaminated with hydrocarbons along with its fluorine containing degradation products, needing treatment. It is therefore has become crucial for the firefighters to again consider the use of AFFF-kind of foams for incidents which do not require this but yet could be most effectively used with the help of better human and financial resources. Instead of it there are many alternative technologies like making use of the 1% or 3% or finished foam instead of 6%, which can reduce the pollution caused while extinguishing fire. The ADCP can also make use of the alternate systems like Compressed air foam systems (CAFS), water mist and fog apparatus, or the use of combined foam and powder delivery systems as an alternative to the previous one which could help in the extinguishing fire. The other measures could be improved system of collection of data for identifying the environment threats from fires and other substances. (Hemming Fire Services 2006: Online) Firewater constitutes toxic compounds, which should be prevented from entering into stormwater systems and this also involve firewater, which could be generated after the fire is extinguished. Some of the ways, which can be used, are technologies that could divert firewater from entering into stormwater systems and pond. There can also be use of oil/chemical absorbent pads, booms, sand, sawdust, zeolite, etc., which could be used for soaking up spillages and hey bales as temporary filters. The stormwater network maps can also be used for identifying various possibilities for interceptions and removal of contaminants, giving priority for preventing the discharge of contaminating firewater to water bodies that could offer little dilution. There could also be use of earth dams in streams for removing the pollutants by sucker trucks. There can be other research methods too like methods to determine different levels of contamination, persistence of soil contamination at the scene of fire, and designing of various devices for filtration purpose that could be used to place in the drains by fire service people at the scene of fire. Then the most effective system can also be developed for giving information to the fire service personnel whenever the fire scene is connected to a stream network of high environmental sensitivity. (Moore, Burns, O’Halloran & Booth 2007: 5) New Innovations Reported to be having gift of 8.5% of the world’s oil reserves and 3.3% of the world’s gas reserves, Abu Dhabi has initiated a project in 2009 to the tune of US $10 billion to find advanced renewable energy technology solutions for reducing the impact of pollution on climate change. Its project Masdar City based on solar energy is expected to be completed by 2015 and have an aim and mission to make first ever city with zero-carbon emission and car-free in the world, with 50,000 inhabitants and 1,500 companies. (Burgermeister 2009: Online) The Army could also adopt the GIS technology to manage its environment and prevent it from pollution. The GIS can be used for several purposes like in drillings, maintenance responsibilities, landscaping features, cultural and archaeological resources, cultural monuments, contaminated sites, recycling points, oil water separators, hazardous waste accumulation points, hazardous material storage areas, above ground storage tanks, underground storage tanks, trees, biotopes and forests. To reduce pollution from Oil Industries, Environmental Sensitivity Index Maps can be used to find out sensitive shoreline resource before any spill of Oil, and there are various scientific measures that can be sorted to prevent oil spilling and wastes generated from the oil and gas exploration activities. (U.S. Army Environmental Command 2009: Online). Conclusion Environment has been a major concern for almost all over the world especially among the developing and developed nations and for this purpose Environment Management System has been formulated which has become the most crucial aspect of any government and an agency. For its functioning, government must maintain that every organisation is conforming to the environment legislation as laid down by the ISO 4001. Every action plan must follow the action plan constituting four main parts i.e. Environmental Assessment, Environment Management, Legal Component and Institutional and Financial Arrangements. On account of the increasing amount of pollution due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and transport system, government was forced to spend around Dh18 billion to reduce the health problems that resulted from the emission of the gases from vehicles alone. Government is also concerned about the lakes that have turned into quagmire and have reached higher pollution level and here the Civil Defense comes into play. They are taking the initiatives and necessary steps to control the air pollution by putting into practical application of environmental legislation that could reduce the emissions of Carbon di Oxide. They are also involved in widening of the roads, inducing citizens to use public transport system, introducing the alternative transport system, bringing into the reach of the people unleaded gasoline instead of fuel, and very minimum carbon diesel and moreover natural gas has also begun to be used more. Importance is being felt to use more of the modern techniques like monitoring and controlling in the management of the air pollution and in conducting more of the research processes and studies to bring out the effect air pollution has on health of the people and social and economic impact it creates. Reference List Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. 2007. Abdullah Nasser Al Suwaidi attends the launching of SoE. [Online] Available: http://www.adnoc.ae/AdnocNews_Details.aspx?NewsID=dfba67c9-3261-4a83-9586-e470dec6a42c&newid=162&mid=162 [3 May 2009] Burgermeister, J. 2009. Abu Dhabi: The New Prince of Solar Technology? [Online] Available: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/01/abu-dhabi-the-new-prince-of-solar-technology-54371 [3 May 2009] Environmental Agency. 2009. Air pollution. [Online] Available: http://www.soe.ae/Abu_Themespage.aspx?m=226 [7 January 2009] Environmental Agency. Abu Dhabi Air Quality Monitoring and Management Project. [Online] Available: http://www.ead.ae/en/?T=2&ID=103 [7 January 2009] Hemming Fire Services. 2006. Firefighting foams- what's safe and what's not? [Online] Available: http://www.hemmingfire.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/92/Firefighting_foams.html [6 May 2009] INTERNATIONAL CIVIL DEFENCE DIRECTORY. General Civil Defence Directorate. [Online] Available: http://www.icdo.org/pdf/struc/uae-en.pdf [3 May 2009] Moore, S., Burns, B., O’Halloran, K. & Booth, L. 2007. Impact of Fire Service Activity on the Environment. [Online] Available: http://www3.fire.org.nz/CMS_media/pdf/5b4467e712133823ca35d26c80e6386e.pdf [6 May 2009] Olson, S.S. 1999. International Environmental Standards Handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Rashed, I. M. Hasaneen, E.A.S., Edward, M. & Dwagi, E.A. 2008. Environmental Management System as a Tool for Improving the Environmental Performance (Case Study). Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 4(4): 383-390. ROPME. 2003. ROPME Objectives. [Online] Available: http://www.ropme.com/pages/objectives.htm [3 May 2009] UAE Report To UNCCD. 2002. Summary Of The Second United Arab Emirates National Report To The UNCCD. [Online] Available: http://www.unccd.int/cop/reports/asia/national/2002/united_arab_emirates-summary-eng.pdf [3 May 2009] U.S. Army Environmental Command. 2009. Overseas Army Garrison Applies GIS Technology to Manage Environmental Program. [Online] Available: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/overseas-army-garrison-applies-gis-technology-manage-environmental-program/ [3 May 2009] Read More