TYPHOON TERROR

MANILA: Sixty people were killed, Manila was blacked out and airline flights were suspended as a powerful typhoon battered the main Philippines island of Luzon yesterday.

Television showed houses swept away by swollen rivers, people on rooftops waving for help and throngs stranded along Manila’s submerged main streets as the storm packing winds of 100kmph dumped six months’ rain in one day.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appealed for donations of clothes, blankets, food and water as hundreds of families, perched on rooftops or trapped in submerged areas, waited for rescue.

Forty-seven people were killed, mostly by drowning, in Rizal province, east of Manila. Eleven people were killed by collapsing walls and rising flood waters in the capital area.

Authorities shut down operations at international and domestic airports, stranding thousands of passengers. An advisory said operations would not resume until today. Businesses and commercial shops closed early and hotels were packed by weary commuters.

Disaster officials declared a “state of calamity” for the capital region and 25 other areas on the main island of Luzon.

The typhoon was moving west-northwest and was expected to head towards the South China Sea by today evening or tomorrow morning.

Chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said the typhoon brought the heaviest rainfall in the country since 1967 after its weather station collected 341mm of rainfall in just six hours yesterday.

Hu laid out a new climate change plan for China. Obama outlined his administration’s efforts so far this year but did not offer new proposals. Hu said China would vigorously develop renewable and nuclear energy and promised emissions would grow slower than economic growth in future.

“We will endeavour to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level,” Hu said. He also outlined ambitious goals of planting enough forest to cover an area the size of Norway and generate 15 per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources within a decade. The pledge, while short of an absolute cap on output, was seen as an attempt to counter critics, especially in Washington, who say Beijing is doing too little.

Obama said the US had done more over the eight months of his presidency to reduce carbon pollution than at any time in history and urged all nations to act together. “Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it – boldly, swiftly, and together – we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe,” Obama said.

“The time we have to reverse this tide is running out.”Activists hoped the US and China would inject momentum before 190 nations gather in Copenhagen aiming to complete a deal to slow climate change. But environmentalists were upset at the lack of specifics in Obama’s first presidential speech to the UN.

“We are very, very disappointed about what Obama has said,” said Thomas Henningsen, climate co-ordinator for Greenpeace International.

“It is more of a step back than a step forward,” he said, adding Obama had not spelled out any concrete steps compared to what other nations were prepared to do.

Europeans, who had welcomed Obama’s commitment to fight climate change as a positive development after his predecessor George W Bush, are growing impatient.

A climate change bill mandating cuts in US emissions is unlikely to be passed by the US Senate by December.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said talks were moving too slowly. “Failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted and politically unwise,” he said.

Talks leading to the December 7-18 meeting have put developed and developing countries at odds over how to distribute emissions curbs.

The picture and clip will be sent to world leaders by a US-based global network of environmental activists spearheading the campaign. More than 1,000 similar events will be held in more than 88 countries to deliver a resounding “wake-up call” ahead of a key meeting on climate change being held in New York tomorrow. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is holding the one-day summit, where US President Barack Obama and China’s President Hu Jintao will be among the speakers.

Leaders of the Group 20 will also meet in Pittsburgh from Thursday to discuss ways to finance the fight against climate change among other issues. Experts say a UN climate pact in Copenhagen in December risks failure unless world leaders revive boggeddown negotiations this week. The global initiative is spearheaded by New York-based e n v i r o n m e n t a l activist group Avaaz (meaning voice in various Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages) and organized here by Bahrain member Anisa Asaad. Ms Asaad encourages everyone to join the campaign, which she says will only last a few minutes, but will hopefully have a significant impact on world leaders.

“The idea of a global climate wake-up call is snowballing into a massive mobilisation of millions who want leaders to do more to stop runaway climate change,” she said.

“Bahrain’s residents are taking part to help show the huge level of public concern that climate talks move far and fast, enough to deliver a deal that will avert climate catastrophe and unleash a green economy.

“We will send pictures and a video to Avaaz, who will then forward all the clips from around the world to leaders at the climate change meeting in New York.” As an early childhood and family educator, Ms Asaad believes it is important to teach children about the principles of environmental protection. “The environment is a big issue for Bahrain and we must raise awareness about how important it is and pass this onto our children. We need to be environmentally aware,” she said. “If we continue to raise children who are not informed, future generations will really suffer.” Abroad coalition of major environmental and antipoverty organisations as well as faith, civic and youth networks – called the TCKTCKTCK campaign for the ticking- clock urgency of climate change – is backing the effort.

Talks

Film and photographs from the day’s event will be compiled and shown to world leaders as well as at the US premiere of climate film Age of Stupid, to be shown in more than 400 cinemas simultaneously. Audiences will also take part in calling their government to get climate talks on track and deliver a “fair, ambitious and binding” new climate treaty.

For more information visit www.avaaz.org/en/tcktcktck_ map.

becky@gdn.com.bh

BAHRAIN will ban all imports of ozone depleting substances (ODS) from January, it was announced yesterday. All products containing such substances will not be allowed to enter the country and returned to their country of origin, said Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife directorgeneral Dr Adel Al Zayani.

These include automobile and truck air-conditioning units, refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers, water coolers, ice machines, air conditioning, heat pump units, aerosol products except medical ones, portable fire extinguisher, insulation boards, panels and pipe covers.

The decision comes after an international treaty last May challenged industries in Bahrain and other developing countries to find alternatives for hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), used mainly in air-conditioning and harmful to the ozone layer. According to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, developing countries are required to comply with new phase-out measures for HCFCs.

It obliges Bahrain and others to freeze their HCFCs consumption levels by 2013 and then comply with reductions of 10 per cent by 2015, 35pc by 2020, 67.5pc by 2025 and 97.5pc by 2030.

The remaining 2.5pc is restricted to the servicing of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment existing between 2030 and 2040, but this is subject to review in 2025. Dr Al Zayani said the decision had been taken to reduce the impact of s u b s t a n c e s harmful to the ozone layer. “Our move has not begun recently as Bahrain ratified the protocol in 1990 and is committed to it.

“To follow it and for fear that the illegal substances will enter the country, the commission and customs have trained their officers on how to determine these substances and products.” He said to help protect the environment through the monitoring of (ODS) Bahrain hosted a training session for its customs officers. “Intensive training of customs officers needs to be undertaken to combat the emerging problem of illegal ODS trade that is threatening the success of the protocol. “Seventy-nine customs officers were trained to become environment inspectors when checking industrial substances harmful to the ozone at the Shaikh Khalifa Harbour and King Fahad Causeway. “Education Ministry technical and career education directorate trainers were also trained to prepare students and employees on how to deal with these substance.

“This comes as part of directives from commission chairman Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa to invest in continuous development of individuals, the community and the environment in the country.”

Dr Al Zayani was speaking at a signing ceremony between the commission and the ministry, at the commission’s Salmabad office.

The agreement is to train cooling and air-conditioning technicians in technical schools on proper disposal of ODS. It was signed by Dr Al Zayani and ministry technical and career education directorate head Hassan Sulaibeekh and attended by United Nations Environment Programme representatives and other officials. Mr Sulaibeekh said the ministry’s training staff were ready to take on the mission, balancing technical responsibility with environment commitment.

Meanwhile, 150 technicians from factories and workshops divided in three groups will be trained in four centres, including Shaikh Khalifa Institute for Technology, Shaikh Abdulla Technical Boys School, Jidhafs Technical Boys School and Jabiriya Technical Boys School. The training, which will cost BD25,000, will be supervised by the Bahrain Society of Engineers.

rasha@gdn.com.bh

My friend’s husband is from Scotland and they are fresh back from a month amidst the lochs and the heather – the thought of which has me salivating.

Bahrain has many things going for it but green it is not and for those of us who grew up amongst the rolling hills of the countryside, hedgerows, rivers and the rain, it can become a little suffocating.

Our home in my native Stafford, England, is surrounded by greenery at every turn of the head, yet here our children have only a concrete yard to run around in. Fresh summer breezes in England – though rare – carry the scent of a myriad plants, but here the winds sweep the heat and the dust ahead of them.

Our only window to the animal world here is the Al Areen reserve, where the heat is tolerable for only a few months of the year – though our daughters are each in love with its solitary camel. But compared to the magical sight of a herd of deer emerging out of the dawn mist on Cannock Chase, a beauty spot almost on our doorstep back home, the oryx dosing in the dust lose their appeal. Forgive if I seem to be putting Bahrain down, I’m not, but having grown up playing in a lush garden, or running through the fields nearby, tadpole net in hand, I can’t help but wish for the same for our children.

We chose the expat lifestyle and it has brought us many benefits in this welcoming and largely safe country.

But I fear at times that our adult choice is depriving our children of some of the magic I knew as a child and of the variety of flora and fauna that such a small desert island cannot offer.

What the children do have though is a diversity of people and they play with others of almost every nationality and creed imaginable, which is not something they would get at home. Actually, even in saying that I am wrong, for the only home they have known is here and not England – which leaves me worrying that we are also denying them their roots. But that’s the manic depressive in me sneaking out, for there is plenty of time in their lives to enjoy the best of both worlds. For now though, I’d like a little grass between my toes!

lhorton@gdn.com.bh

The government initially took action to rehabilitate and protect the bay after a black patch of sewerage discharges surfaced in June 2007, leading to a huge damage to marine resources.

The Cabinet decided to assign a specialised company to assess the bay’s environmental problems. It completed its report last September and presented it to the ministerial services and public utilities committee. This was approved on Sunday, Officials and environmentalist  have been complaining for years that the bay’s conditions have deteriorated due to the lack of water flow following reclamation work on the new Sitra Causeway. Councillors claimed last month that thousands of fish have been dying everyday due to mounting sewage and there were constant complaints from residents about the worsening stench in the area.

“His Majesty King Hamad is really concerned about the welfare of the bay and this is why protection methods were sought before it is destroyed beyond repair,” said Shaikh Abdulla, who is also Southern Governor. “The ministries and government bodies concerned perhaps did not think that the issue is a priority or considered it less important than other projects. “Now, the real work will begin and all sewage networks in the area will be fixed and rerouted. “Operations in the Tubli Sewage Plant will be further improved and work will be carried out to improve the flow of water currents, which were destroyed by reclamation. “The factories surrounding the bay will also be either forced to adopt new technologies or closed down. Rusty factories are already on their way to be closed down without any negotiation.” Shaikh Abdulla said the bay was now being given a new lifeline.

“The marine life will flourish, the birds will love to come back and the mangroves will grow once again,” he said. Companies can now bid for a contract to remove the sludge, which is said to have seeped into the bay from

the Tubli sewage plant over several years. Contractors will have to tackle the sludge by surrounding it with sand and treating it with substances designed to break it down. A Royal Decree considering the bay’s remaining area of 13.5sq km as a protected zone was issued in 2006 after parliament launched a probe into large numbers of lands being sold inside the bay.

The Manama and Centra Municipal Councils and the Municipalities andAgriculture Affairs Ministry have already outlined the bay’s size, whose area is more than 13.5sq km. The Royal decree, issued in August 2006, determines the bay’s size as 13.5sq km.

Clean

There is no agreement yet on whether owners of lands in the bay, which are no  reclaimed yet, should be compensated or not. Shaikh Abdulla said that it was not the commission’s duty to compensate land owners. The Works Ministry said last September that the method selected to clean up the bay included surrounding the sludge within the confines of sand walls and metal plates. It said that this would ensure that the contaminants do not spill further into the bay. It is hoped officials will be able to restore mangrove swamps to the area once it is cleaned up.

alaali@gdn.com.bh