Jubail Industrial City sets trend in environmental planning

Jubail Industrial City won the first position of the environmental awareness from the Arab Cities Award Foundation at its twelfth session. This was announced at the headquarters of the foundation in Doha, Qatar, with the presence of the arbitral tribunal, the preparatory commission, and members of the delegation of the General Secretariat of the Foundation. The Jordanian capital, Amman, ranked the second place, while Ramallah came in third place.
The general manager of technical affairs in the Royal Commission of Jubail (RCJ), Ahmed Al-Balawi, said that there is no environmental damage on Jubail residents from smoke and flames coming from plants.
Al-Balawi said, "There is no negative effect, and even if we faced a problem or damage, we will deal with it immediately."
He noted that the RCJ is currently setting up more stations in addition to the nine existing ones, with updated environmental standards that will be adopted during 2015, including direct control system over the sources, emissions, and industries.
The commission receives reports on monthly basis from plants to monitor irregularities and control all emissions recorded. The new automated systems take readings directly without any interference, to record any irregularities immediately, so the RCJ is able to know accurately the level of pollution and emissions at one time for each company.
Al-Balawi said that there are air quality mobile monitoring stations for many sites and different times to monitor any contaminants.
He said that the Royal Commission focuses more on the creation of integrated harmony between industrial development and environmental conservation, as all systems in Jubail Industrial City are compatible with international standards to avoid any harm.
Al-Balawi said that Jubail Industrial City is a role model in the proper environmental planning, where a comprehensive environmental survey is conducted before creating any plant to determine the adverse effects that may be caused to the ecosystem.