During Her Participation in the Inauguration Ceremony of the “National Plan for Pollutants” Dr. Al Mudhahki: UoB Is a Major Contributor to the Project of POPs Plan

Sakhir – University of Bahrain – Mansoor Al-Wanni
27 August 2022
The President of the University of Bahrain (UoB), Dr. Jawaher Bint Shaheen Al-Mudhahki, said that the University conducted a set of studies and reports on persistent organic pollutants, in various fields, which later formed the basis of the project for the National Plan for Persistent Organic Chemical Pollutants (POPs), and confirmed that this comes from UoB’s role in serving the community.
Dr. Al-Mudhahki delivered a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the National Plan for POPs, in the presence of the Minister of Oil and Environment, the Special Envoy for Climate Affairs, Dr. Mohammed bin Mubarak Dinah, and the Minister of Health, Dr. Jalila bint Jawad Al-Sayed, in which the University President explained that: “A year ago, 2019, a group of academics in the faculties of science and engineering at the University started working on preparing a set of applied research”, pointing out that these research were concluded with a draft of the current national implementation plan.
Dr. Al-Mudhahki stressed that the issue of POPs is one of the main fundamental issues, and that addressing POPs has become an urgent matter that can’t be delayed, in order to reduce the serious health effects that may result from exposure to pollutants, including some types of cancer, birth defects, impaired immune system function, fertility, increased susceptibility to diseases and damage to the central nervous system.
During the ceremony that was held in the conference hall of the Gulf Hotel, in the presence of the representative of the United Nations Environment Program and the Regional Director of the West Asia Office, Sami Dimassi, and a number of undersecretaries and officials in various governmental and private sectors related to chemicals, the UoB President confirmed that “The University of Bahrain’s cooperation with the Supreme Council of Environment is not new, as it has existed and been established for years,” adding that, “In the past ten years, the University has had various types of scientific and academic cooperation with the Council.”.
Moreover, Dr. Al-Mudhahki stated that the cooperation included reviewing drafts of international treaties and national projects that were referred from the Council to the University, and expressing scientific opinion on them by the departments of life sciences and chemistry in the College of Science, such as: Preparing the second and third national communication of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals or what is known as the Bonn Treaty, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Use, the draft update of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, in addition to the Environment Law that was issued last March and will be implemented as of mid-September.
It is noteworthy that the National Plan for POPs aims to achieve a number of the UN’s sustainable development goals, which is one of the pillars of the government’s action programs in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The Kingdom of Bahrain has signed the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in the year 2005, and has ratified 12 substances of POPs, which are organic chemicals agreed upon internationally, as they pose a serious global threat to human health and ecosystems.

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