This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KUWAIT 001830 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
AMMAN FOR ESTH HUB OFFICER JWHITTLESEY 
INTERIOR FOR USGS/INTERNATIONAL 
COMMERCE FOR NOAA/INTERNATIONAL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV TBIO EPET PREL KPAO KU TSPL
SUBJECT: OIL AND WATER: REGIONAL HUB OFFICER RECEIVES 
OVERVIEW OF KUWAIT'S ESTH CONCERNS 
 
REF: A. STATE 73277 
 
     ¶B. KUWAIT 1042 
     ¶C. KUWAIT 986 
 
This cable is sensitive but unclassified; please protect 
accordingly.  Not for internet distribution. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  During his April 17-20 orientation visit 
to Kuwait, Amman Regional Environment, Science, Technology 
and Health (ESTH) officer Jock Whittlesey met with a wide 
range of governmental, non-governmental and private sector 
individuals and participated in three public diplomacy 
outreach events.  Generally speaking, most interlocutors 
agreed that environmental protection and awareness are 
increasing, but that there is still a long way to go, 
particularly from a regulatory and enforcement standpoint. 
The oil industry has arguably the most significant impact on 
the environment, generating air, solid waste and liquid 
seepage pollution.  Since Kuwait (like all GCC states) must 
produce and sell oil, the challenge is to develop cleaner 
ways of doing so while maintaining efficient production.  To 
help mitigate the effects of an oil spill, Kuwait Petroleum 
Corporation (KPC) has a developed national oil spill response 
plan. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Kuwait's other primary environmental concern is 
water.  To reduce pressure on fresh water supplies, Kuwait 
has a separate system for brackish water, and has built a new 
facility to reclaim and treat wastewater.  However, 
conservation is non-existent, and water overusage has raised 
the water table, resulting in pools of water that stagnate 
year-round and undermine surface stability.  On land issues, 
Whittlesey learned about increasing desertification, desert 
rehabilitation and protection initiatives, and Kuwaiti 
concerns about depleted uranium.  Issues of regional concern 
also dominated discussions, including worries about Iraq's 
marshlands, dams in Turkey and disposal and possible leakage 
of nuclear waste materials in Iran.  Finally, the 
interlocutors identified a number of areas for future ESTH 
cooperation with the U.S.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Overview of Meetings 
-------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) During his April 17-20 orientation visit to Kuwait, 
Amman Regional Environment, Science, Technology and Health 
(ESTH) officer Jock Whittlesey met with a wide range of 
individuals to obtain an overview of Kuwait's ESTH issues. 
From the Government of Kuwait, Whittlesey met Kuwait 
Environment Public Authority (KEPA) Director General Jassem 
Beshara and Deputy Director General Rashed Al-Rashoud (Note: 
KEPA is the functional equivalent of an environment 
ministry), and Ministry of Energy Undersecretary Saud 
Al-Zaid, who is responsible for water issues.  At the Kuwait 
Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), a 
quasi-governmental research facility, Whittlesey spoke with 
Director General Abdulhadi Al-Otaibi, Petroleum Research and 
Studies Center Director Hasan Qabazard, Environmental 
Sciences Department Manager Abdul Nabi Al-Ghadban, and Remote 
Sensing Group Research Associate Ahmad Al-Dousari. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) To learn more about the petroleum industry's role 
in managing environmental problems, Whittlesey spoke with the 
Oil Spill Response Coordinator for Kuwait Petroleum 
Corporation (KPC), Captain Awadh Saeed, and to learn about 
non-governmental efforts to protect the environment, he met 
with Shaykha Amthal Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and Ahmad 
Almershed from the Kuwait Voluntary Work Center.  Finally, 
Whittlesey spoke with Hassan Mohammedi, the coordinator for 
the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine 
Environment (ROPME), an intergovernmental organization that 
is headquartered in Kuwait and covers all of the GCC states 
plus Iran and Iraq. 
 
Public Outreach 
--------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) In conjunction with his visit, which coincided with 
Earth Day (ref A), Whittlesey participated in three public 
diplomacy events.  At Kuwait University, he gave a lecture to 
a group of students and faculty on environmental governance 
in the U.S.  The lecture linked together a number of issues 
that are of concern to post, including the significance of 
grassroots participation and governmental decentralization, 
the importance of environmental cooperation under U.S. free 
trade agreements, and the need for international cooperation 
on ESTH issues (including the utility of Kuwaiti students 
studying in the U.S.).  A Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reporter 
attended the talk, and the local media reprinted her wire 
report widely.  Whittlesey later made similar remarks in an 
exclusive interview with the Arabic daily Al-Qabas, which ran 
a full-page story.  Whittlesey also visited the Fatma 
Al-Hashemiya public girls' high school, where he met with the 
Nowair club, a group of gifted young women chosen by their 
science teachers to participate in a club that promotes 
environmental awareness.  The students put on an impressive 
presentation of the various scientific, public outreach and 
consciousness-raising projects in which they are currently 
engaged. 
 
Environmental Protection and Awareness in Kuwait 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Generally speaking, most interlocutors agreed that 
environmental protection and awareness are increasing in 
Kuwait and throughout the Gulf.  In Kuwait, a severe red tide 
in 2001 that led to a massive fish kill seems to have raised 
the profile of marine environment issues; indeed, almost 
everyone with whom Whittlesey spoke referred to that 
disaster.   Still, there is still a long way to go, 
particularly from a regulatory and enforcement standpoint. 
While the KEPA officials predictably put a positive spin on 
environmental protection in Kuwait (which they called 
comparable to that in other GCC states), others were more 
critical.  KISR's Qabazard, for example, referred to KEPA as 
"primitive," and called its environmental regulations 
insufficient. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Shaykha Amthal from the Kuwait Voluntary Work 
Center also agreed that Kuwait,s lax environmental 
protection rules pose the greatest challenge. (Note. Shaykha 
Amthal is also the Emir's sister.  End Note.)  She added, 
however, that the public is also uneducated about the 
importance of the environment.  Her organization is trying to 
rectify the latter by carrying out public awareness campaigns 
and working directly with schools, since in her view, it will 
be easier to sensitize children than to reach adults. 
 
Impact of the Petroleum Industry 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The oil industry is without a doubt the most 
important player in Kuwait's economy; it also has arguably 
the most significant impact on the environment.  KEPA's 
Beshara noted that because of Gulf states' economic 
dependence on oil, this is an extremely sensitive and highly 
politicized issue.  Beshara, who worked for many years in the 
petroleum sector, remarked that GCC countries' pollution 
analysis studies uniformly identify the same source: 
hydrocarbons.   The industry is the primary source of three 
types of pollution:  air emissions (sulfur oxides, nitrogen 
oxides, carbon oxides, and particulates from burning fuel), 
solid wastes, and liquid seepage (both on land and at sea). 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Since the GCC states must produce and sell oil, 
Beshara said, the challenge is to develop cleaner ways of 
doing so.  He believes that with proper legislation and 
standards, the petroleum industry would be obliged to use 
cleaner technologies.  He added that there must also be 
increased awareness of environmental issues and a cultural 
change within the industry, especially at the operator level. 
 Beshara commented that the GOK has started to push for these 
changes, but said that it will take time.  In his opinion, 
the motivation within the government is there, as is the 
requisite will among petroleum decisionmakers (indeed, KPC's 
Saeed said his company is investing hundreds of millions of 
dollars to bring its facilities into compliance with the 
stricter KEPA standards that were imposed after the 2001 fish 
kill).  But, Beshara noted, the industry's primary concern 
will always be efficiency. 
 
¶10. (SBU) To help mitigate the effects of any oil spill, 
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has created a division 
within its subsidiary, Kuwait Oil Company, that is solely 
responsible for developing and maintaining a national oil 
spill response plan that includes stakeholders from 
throughout the government and industry.  Although the plan 
covers both land and maritime spills, Oil Spill Response 
Coordinator Saeed focuses primarily on spills at sea.  In 
addition to adversely affecting the marine environment, such 
spills could potentially have a negative impact on Kuwait's 
drinking water supply, since much of it is desalinated 
seawater.  KPC also works closely with ROPME's marine 
emergency office in Bahrain (called MEMAC), as well as with 
the U.S. Navy, to ensure that there is a detailed, 
coordinated plan for coping with oil spills resulting from 
collisions or other accidents throughout the Arabian Gulf. 
 
Water 
----- 
 
¶11. (SBU) The other primary environmental concern in arid 
Kuwait is water.  According to the Ministry of Energy's 
Al-Zaid, average water consumption for 2004 was 273 million 
imperial gallons per day (roughly 109 gallons/day of fresh 
water use per capita).  Unlike Arab countries in the Levant 
and Maghreb, Kuwait uses only small percentage of its water 
resources for agriculture (about 12-14 million gallons/day 
total; the vast majority of fresh water consumption (70 
percent) is for household use.  While some drinking water 
comes from aquifers, most potable water and brackish water 
used for irrigation comes from desalination plants. 
 
¶12. (SBU) To reduce pressure on fresh water supplies, Kuwait 
has developed two separate water systems, one of which 
delivers fresh water and another for brackish water.  The 
ministry estimates that it delivers about 100 million 
gallons/day of brackish water, mostly for irrigation.  As 
part of its strategy for increasing water supplies, Al-Zaid 
described a recently completely, four-stage wastewater 
treatment facility, which reclaims 80 million gallons of 
wastewater each day (ref C).  The government distributes most 
of this water to farms in northern and southern Kuwait for 
irrigation, and uses the remainder to irrigate landscaping. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Al-Zaid complained, however, that consumers are 
using fresh water inappropriately for purposes like filling 
swimming pools, washing cars and watering their gardens. 
(Note.  Part of the blame for this lies with the Ministry, 
which only bills consumers annually for fresh water -- and 
often fails to collect even these annual bills -- and which 
does not meter brackish water use at all.  End Note.)  As is 
the case elsewhere in the Gulf, heavy irrigation of 
non-drought resistant landscaping and the reinjection of 
water into oil fields (creating artificial lift that pushes 
the oil to the surface) has raised the water table, resulting 
in pools of water that stagnate year-round and undermine 
surface stability (leading to sinkholes and higher 
construction costs). 
 
Land Issues 
----------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) The overall scarcity of water -- and the Kuwaiti 
penchant for camping in the desert -- have accelerated the 
process of desertification.  According to KISR remote sensing 
expert Al-Dousari, desertification has become severe in 
southern Kuwait, and is well underway in the north and west. 
As he pointed out, the desert can barely support animal life 
under the best conditions, much less cope with humans and 
their vehicles.  Al-Dousari pointed out that desertification 
could also have serious implications for the oil industry: 
KPC and its subsidiaries have a number of facilities in the 
desert that could become choked with sand if natural 
windbreaks were destroyed and sandstorms became worse and 
more frequent. 
 
¶15. (SBU) Shayka Amthal described efforts that her 
organization has undertaken to protect the desert 
environment, including establishing a 300 million square 
meter nature reserve in northern Kuwait and a bird sanctuary. 
 She has also worked closely with the U.S. military to 
rehabilitate land that the military used during Operation 
Iraqi Freedom (ref B). 
 
¶16. (SBU) Finally, the controversy over the safety of 
depleted uranium (DU) is alive and well in Kuwait.  Embassy 
officials told Whittlesey that the Kuwaitis are quite 
sensitive about DU, and routinely carry out radiation testing 
on  ranges where the U.S. military works.  The Kuwaiti 
military is also currently engaged in negotiations to get rid 
of all tank ammunition containing depleted uranium.  Finally, 
the Kuwaitis are looking to enter into a commercial contract 
to remove soil with low-level radiation contamination from 
Kuwait for disposal elsewhere. 
 
Regional Concerns 
------------------ 
¶17. (SBU) During Whittlesey's discussions, it became clear 
that regional issues have a great impact on Kuwait's 
environment.  (Note.  Much of Kuwait's environment was 
severely damaged after the Iraqi invasion, when Saddam's 
retreating forces set fire to the oil wells; the Kuwaitis are 
particularly sensitive to the environmental threats posed by 
their neighbors.  End Note.)  This was most apparent in 
discussions about southern Iraq's marshes, which were drained 
by Saddam Hussein and are gradually being restored.  KISR's 
Al-Otaibi described likened the marshes to a comb that, 
before they were drained, prevented biocides from leaking 
into the northern Gulf.  At the same time, nutrients from the 
marshes flowed south into the Gulf and provided food for the 
fish in the fragile ecosystem near Bubiyan island.  Draining 
the marshes had a doubly damaging effect:  insecticides began 
leaching freely into the water supply, and salinity began to 
rise in the northern Gulf as the marshes' fresh water output 
diminished.  Al-Ghadban added that reflooding the marshes has 
resulted in pollutants, including hydrocarbons, flowing into 
the Gulf. 
 
¶18. (SBU) KISR's Al-Ghadban is also worried about the effects 
of Turkey's Anatolia dam scheme (which, ironically, is being 
partially financed by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic 
Development).  The remnants of this river water eventually 
flow into the northern Gulf after passing through Iraq.  If 
the supply is severely reduced or terminated, Al-Ghadban 
contends, the ecosystem of the northern Gulf will be 
jeopardized by an increase in salinity.  Al-Ghadban said he 
had raised this concern with the National Assembly, UNEP and 
UNDP. 
 
¶19. (SBU) Several interlocutors expressed concern about 
Iran's nuclear program.  Al-Ghadban said that he had spoken 
to the National Assembly about the threat posed by possible 
leakage of nuclear waste materials, and raised the specter of 
contamination resulting from illegal dumping of nuclear waste 
in the Gulf.  In Al-Ghadban's opinion, there is a strong need 
for regional cooperation to deal with such matters, although 
he noted that there is a certain amount of mistrust among the 
partners. (Note.  One organization that is helping facilitate 
such regional cooperation is ROPME.  End Note.) 
 
Areas for Cooperation with the U.S. 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶20. (SBU) Whittlesey's interlocutors identified several areas 
for possible future cooperation with the U.S.  Shaykha Amthal 
requested U.S. assistance in strengthening environmental laws 
and improving enforcement.  KEPA's Beshara said his 
organization could use American expertise for workshops and 
training on issues like environmental impact studies, 
industrial waste, and air pollution control.  He asked that 
the training take place in Kuwait, to help build indigenous 
capacity. 
 
¶21. (SBU) Another common suggestion was the need for 
information on new environmental technologies.  The Ministry 
of Energy asked to learn more about new water production and 
conservation technologies and techniques, while KISR's 
Al-Otaibi said Kuwait would benefit from U.S. experience in 
cleaning large quantities of hydrocarbons from soil, fighting 
desertification, employing nanotechnology for desalination, 
treating wastewater, and artificial recharge technology. 
KISR's Al-Qabazard made a plea for U.S. help in promoting 
transparency and encouraging the community to demand its 
"right to know" what the government is doing, not only on 
environmental issues but also more generally. KPC's Saeed, 
noting that British companies are more actively promoting 
their environmental technologies than American ones, made an 
innovative suggestion that U.S. companies consider hosting a 
trade show in conjunction with a conference by U.S. experts 
on environmental standards, regulations and technologies. 
 
¶22. (SBU) Finally, nearly all interlocutors asked for an 
increase in ESTH exchanges.  KISR's Qabazard was emphatic 
about the importance of this, saying that Kuwaitis love 
American ideas and Americans, outlook on life.  "If we get 
1-2 percent (of that) here, we,ll be winners," Qabazard 
asserted.  He added that money is not a problem for KISR or 
Kuwaitis generally, but said that they need U.S. assistance 
in initiating contacts. 
 
¶23.  (U) Regional ESTH Hub Officer Jock Whittlesey cleared 
this cable. 
LEBARON