KUWAIT CITY, May 17: The Green Line Environment Group (GLEG) is ready to face legal suits and harassment complaints, says environmental activist and GLEG Chairman Khalid Al Hajri.
Speaking at a press conference, Al Hajri referred to the attack launched by the Environment Public Authority (EPA) against Green Line and called on the government to take action against the authority’s newly-appointed officers “who simply do not know what they are doing. We call on the government to take responsibility and acknowledge that the newly-appointed administration of the authority does not have the required expertise and is another reason for the worsening environmental problems in the country.”
“To address this problem, the current administration of EPA needs to be replaced immediately with one that has scientific and administrative expertise and knowledge about the working of government institutions,” he added.
Al-Hajri praised the Director of Industrial Environment Management at EPA Mohammed Al-Enezi who called on the Green Line to increase pressure on the government in Umm Al-Haiman case during an interview on Scope TV channel last week.
Al-Hajri stressed that Green Line recorded the full interview and presented it to legal advisers as it is the first time in the history of Kuwait that a government official has called on a civil institution and international community on TV to pressurize the government due to rapid escalation of environmental problems in the country.
Al Hajri noted that Al-Enezi’s call to increase pressure on the government proves the disaster taking place at Umm Al- Haiman and indicates government’s inability to manage environment problems.
Moreover, Al-Hajri stressed that Al-Enezi’s interview refutes government claims that it has been addressing the problem.
“We will not accept the games being played by the new administration of EPA which commissioned Al- Enezi to conduct surveys which did not fall under his specialization,” he added.
Al-Hajri also called on MPs to protect Al-Enezi from government pressure and said everyone has the right to resort to court, according to international human rights conventions signed by Kuwait.
Al-Hajri stressed that the optimal solution to the problem of Umm Al-Haiman is to move people to new housing areas and convert Umm Al-Haiman into a storage area to support Shuaiba Port. “Also, environment laws and regulations should be enforced on oil refineries and factories so that toxic wastes do not move to neighboring areas,” he added.