Sharjah declared city of conservation

Sharjah has been declared the city of conservation for the next two years to achieve sustainable development in the emirate.
Addressing a press conference held at Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA), Dr. Rashid Alleem, chairman of SEWA, said that under the unlimited support and farsighted directives of His Highness Dr. Shaikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, SEWA is looking forward to achieving the ultimate sustainable development and providing high quality services at the latest international standards and global specifications.
He added that SEWA has already started efforts towards creating one of best model cities of power conservation within an ambitious strategy and creative initiatives and enhancing the role of SEWA as model to be globally intimated in the competitiveness and leadership and its commitment to maintain the rights of our next generations in the natural resources.
SEWA's strives to realize the dream of crowning Sharjah as the first City of Conservation in the region to constitute an integral part to its on-going development process and its civilized mission in a bid to promote Sharjah's regional and international image to take a lead in sustainability and environment.
"It is recognition of SEWA that preserving our energy resources will be one of the greatest challenges in our drive towards sustainable development. We have been always pioneering in meeting customer satisfaction and promoting Sharjah's vision by providing electricity and water services at a world-class level of reliability, efficiency, safety and environment by a competent workforce and effective partnerships; supporting resources sustainability," Dr. Alleem said.
He pointed out that SEWA considers its strategic partners and suppliers as main milestone in its strategy to deliver the best possible services to the emirate of Sharjah. "We look to world-class organizations from around the world to present and review the most advanced solutions in electricity, water, environment and other technologies that drive our excellence-centric approach to service delivery. We have conducted a range of awareness campaigns to encourage everyone to be more conscious and aware of how much electricity and water they use so that everyone can make greater efforts to rationalise their use," he said.
Conservation targets

Dr. Alleem said that In line with its policy focusing on integrated strategy focusing on the implementation of energy efficiency and reduction of energy consumption and comparative recent studies of consumption trends, SEWA has set a conservation target of 30 per cent reduction in the consumption of power and water in the Emirate of Sharjah.
Within its drive for excellence and high quality, SEWA has initiated the application of the principles on the maintenance of the energy resources declared by the UN Industrial Development Program Organization which adopted by the International Standardization Organization under ISO 50001 certification.
SEWA is considered as the first Arab electricity and water authority that adopted and applied the principles of energy resources maintenance which have achieved objective results.
SEWA would like to urge the concerned parties to cooperate and work together in order to enhance the march towards our prosperity and welfare and make further achievement to meet the aspirations of the citizens as well as the residents of our homeland.
Objective of the declaration
Dr. Alleem said that the declaration aimed at raising the efficiency of power and water consumption in the Emirate of Sharjah and reduction of at least 30 per cent of power consumption, enhancing the role of Sharjah city as the international model for power and water conservation, achieving the sustainable development and maintain rights of our next generation in the natural resources, maintaining the environment through the rational use of eco-friendly fuels and application of the latest international standards to eliminate pollution and emission of greenhouse gases as per the Kyoto Protocol, then international treaty linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets raising the awareness of all community categories about the rational use of power and water.
Using the power saving lights at all government building, commercial establishment and streets, raising the efficiency of power production by about 50 per cent and reduce the running costs at SEWA power generation stations, minimizing the loss in the power networks to the globally acceptable rate (3 per cent), minimize the loss in the water networks to the globally acceptable rate (10 per cent).
Raising the public awareness about the importance of regular maintenance of the electrical devices and the continuous check of the internal water installation to avoid any invisible leaks.
Strategies

The strategies include launching awareness drives targeting the students of the schools and universities and all community categories under the theme: With conservation, we are all beneficiaries
Initiatives

The initiatives will be launched with community members, individual, schools, sports clubs and cultural club to spread conservation awareness.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

• Sharjah

Afkar Ali Ahmed

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com