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A leading environmentalist in Bahrain has sent out an urgent appeal to realtors and developers to adopt environment-friendly construction methods for a sustainable future, writes Anasuya Kesavan.
In a seminar entitled, Promoting Green Construction in Bahrain, Rehan Ahmed, head of the Waste Disposal Unit at the Directorate of Environmental Control, Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife, said: “Construction is straining our earth’s carrying capacity and our planet cannot support high levels of resource consumption.
“Fifty per cent of all natural resources in the world including sand, steel and copper are used in construction. And, all of them are finite resources.
“Around six million litres of water is required to construct a small house. There are vast amounts of energy used from the time of manufacturing and transporting of raw materials to the time of actual use.
“Construction activity can increase air pollution by almost 23 per cent and drinking water pollution up to 40 per cent.
“We have to think beyond our borders as our earth cannot sustain these resources. We need to follow standards for procurement of materials.”
This appeal comes close on the heels of a recent Economic Development Board (EDB) report that states almost 350,000 residential units will need to be added to existing stock by 2030 to keep up with the demand for affordable housing in the kingdom.
The report, released in November, said that demand is expected to increase to 263,536 housing units in 2020 and then to 346,718 in 2030 from the current stock of 145,181.
EDB also states on its website that Bahrain is expected to invest $2.9billion to upgrade its logistics infrastructure, including a new bridge to Qatar, an airport expansion, a state-of- the-art logistics zone and a larger port.
Rehan, 54, believes that construction and sustainable development should go hand in hand and both private and public stake holders should adopt a green approach. He added that the requirement to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment report, currently a requirement for major construction projects, should be expanded to non-commercial projects.
He said: “We are not foreseeing the impact on the environment in the kingdom. With the current usage of resources we cannot continue for very long. We have over $3 trillion projects in the Gulf countries and Bahrain has very limited resources.
“We use sand dug from a quarry, from the sea after dredging and cleaning and also import it from Saudi Arabia. How long can this continue? All other construction materials are imported.
“Overnight things cannot be changed but this can only happen when there is awareness among people. We therefore need to gradually move towards sustainable construction.”
He also said that while Bahrain has restrictions on importing ozone depleting substances and hazardous chemicals, there are none for construction materials. Construction costs in Bahrain are the highest in the Gulf region, according to a 2011 survey by consultancy EC Harris.
