KUWAIT: United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Program Maimunah Sharif (left) and KFAED Director-General Marwan Al-Ghanem pose for a group picture after signing the agreement. - KUNA photos

KUWAIT: Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) and United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) yesterday signed a grant agreement worth KD 4 million ($13.2 million) to finance Improved Resilience to Transboundary sand and Dust Storms in Kuwait and Iraq Project. The deal was signed by United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Program Maimunah Sharif, and KFAED Director-General Marwan Al-Ghanem.

Ghanem said in a press statement on the sidelines of the signing ceremony that the project would contribute to reducing about 40 percent of the total amount of sand and dust falling on the state of Kuwait. It will also help reduce the amount and number of occurrences of sand and dust storms in two specific areas, Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces in the Republic of Iraq, which are located about 250 kilometers north of the Kuwaiti border, he added.

KPC's CEO Hashem Hashem (left) and Director of the Regional Office for the Arab States at the UN-Habitat Erfan Ali sign the memo of understanding.

The project aims to identify the main causes that lead to the formation of sand and dust storms in terms of climatic, geological, and chemical factors, and provide solutions in the areas suffering from these storms, he added. This will be achieved through analysis of information using specialized programs to obtain results that help to carry out fieldwork to mitigate the negative effects of these storms, he said, noting that the main components of the project are: preparing technical, economical and health indicators, and procurement documents for goods and services, physical intervention and fieldworks, monitoring and analysis of results and securing project sustainability.

Moreover, the project will directly contribute to maximizing regional efforts in achieving a set of sustainable development goals, most notably the eleventh goal on creating sustainable cities and local communities, the thirteenth goal on expanding the scope of measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and the seventeenth goal on strengthening global partnerships and cooperation in achieving development goals, he noted. In the meantime, the UN official said the project will contribute to cutting sand and dust storms and their negative impacts on public health and the economy of the affected areas, specifically on the State of Kuwait.

Sustainable development

Meanwhile, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and the UN-Habitat yesterday signed a memo of understanding (MoU) for attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MoU was signed by KPC's CEO Hashem Hashem and Director of the Regional Office for the Arab States at the UN-Habitat Erfan Ali, with officials from both sides attending.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Hashem said the document is meant to provide a cooperative framework for both sides to work together to realize SDGs. The MoU will be put in place in Kuwait by means of focusing on environment recovery, urban governance, decision-support mechanism, social inclusion and basic service management, Hashem elaborated.

The document defines joint cooperation programs for carrying out particular projects purposed to make the KPC a role model for sustainable corporations that are capable of surviving and working together for improving the environment performance of the KPC and its subsidiaries and even the State of Kuwait. It, further, offers environmental consultations and oil sector-bearing sustainability consultations with a view to attaining sustainable urban development goals, together with cooperation for implementing new environment projects in the oil sector, eventually leading to further revamping Kuwait's reputation regionally and globally.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. KPC was established in January 1980 as a state-owned oil corporation. The shares of its subsidiaries, namely Kuwait Oil Company, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Petrochemicals Industry Company and Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, were transferred to the new corporation. KPC is responsible for marketing Kuwait's oil outside the country. - KUNA