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The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi has signed two agreements with Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Center of Waste Management - Abu Dhabi (CWM) in a move that will create synergies among the entities in the field of environmental education and awareness.
The two agreements are aimed at reducing overall water and electricity consumption and reducing waste among schools and universities across the Abu Dhabi.
The organisations will work towards equipping students - which constitute over 25 percent of the total population in the Emirate - with the knowledge and skills to prepare them as the next generation of leaders and decision makers advocating sustainable management practices. The focus will be on wise water and electricity use and how to minimise waste. This will be done through joint educational programmes and initiatives, with a strong focus on EAD’s Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI) and the Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI) as the main conduit for awareness-raising.
The two agreements will look to promote sound environmental stewardship among the students, reduce the Emirate’s ecological footprint, and work towards an ecologically-sensitive and resource-conscious society led by students, parents and neighbourhood communities.
The two agreements were signed separately, with Dr. Jaber Al Jabri, EAD’s Deputy Secretary General signing on behalf of EAD, while Abdulla Saif Al Nuaimi, ADWEA’s Director General, and Dr. Salem Al Kaabi, CWM’s Acting General Manager, signing on behalf of ADWEA and CWM, respectively.
Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, EAD’s Secretary General, said: "The vision of EAD is to promote a sustainable environment for a more sustainable future for Abu Dhabi. To move towards this vision, it is imperative that we work collaboratively with partners with the same goal of protecting the well-being of our communities and that of our precious environment for future generations." Dr. Jaber Al Jabri, EAD’s Deputy Secretary General: "One of the pillars of what we do is running educational efforts to promote environmentally-friendly behaviour among today’s youth. This is something that we’ve focused on since our inception in 1996, and with the support of the Abu Dhabi Education Council, we incorporated environmental education as part of Abu Dhabi Emirate’s first ever environmental strategy of 2001." He added "With the support from several public and private entities in the UAE, EAD has successfully carried out programmes that have allowed us to achieve our strategic objectives. These efforts have helped win awards and accolades for Abu Dhabi Emirate from international bodies such as UNESCO and international environment education organisations whom the Agency networks and shares best practices with to promote the role education plays on environmental issues." Abdulla Saif Al Nuaimi, ADWEA’s Director General noted that ADWEA and its partners work on various water and energy awareness conservation programmes, such as the recently-launched ?Together for Conservation’ campaign.. He stressed that ADWEA’s goal is to deliver a clear message demonstrating the importance of education and the role of the student in the community through annual campaigns.
Dr. Salem Al Kaabi, Center of Waste Management - Abu Dhabi’s (CWM) Acting General Manager, said: "The agreement reflects our keenness to build on our relationship with the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi with the aim of stepping up sustainability efforts in the Emirate. It will allow us to jointly address crucial issues such as waste production and the concept of recycling, and raise overall awareness on friendly sustainable practices.
"We aim to achieve our goals by working at the grassroots level and implementing initiatives in schools and higher education institutions in the emirate is the ideal way to do this. We are confident that our active efforts with EAD will significantly contribute to Abu Dhabi’s long term goals of shaping the emirate into a more sustainable destination," he concluded.
The agreements will continue for a period of four years from the date they were signed, and shall be automatically renewed for the same period, unless terminated by either party.
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