The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) is poised to organize a workshop on the effects of landmines and explosives on environment in the Arab world on December 10-12.

 

The workshop, which will be sponsored by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Oil Mustafa Al-Shimali, is part of an anti-mine program for Arab-speaking countries and a good opportunity for the participants to review relevant achievements and determine necessary requirements as well as to devise a plan of action for 2014, a senior KISR official said.

 

The event is primarily intended to discuss the impacts of landmines and explosive remnants of war on environment and affected Arab communities in Arab countries, and to boost public awareness of hazardous materials.

 

The participants will also thrash out challenges facing those working in anti-landmine programs in Arabic-speaking countries and set outlines for relevant issues that should be addressed by in a collective manner, she added.

 

Most Arabic-speaking countries are suffering from serious effects of landmines and explosive remnants of war, she said, adding that this pollution poses environmental threats to ecological systems.

 

Such threats mainly include living pressure, uneasy access to livelihood, land instability, soil degradation, soil pollution, chemical pollution of water systems and lack of biodiversity.

 

Statistics show that the number of civilian victims of international and internal wars and conflicts is continuously growing as a natural result of expansion in the use of landmines and bombs and other fatal weapons, she said.

 

There are nearly 70 million landmines in the world, including at least one third of such mines still being hidden in Arab countries.

 

The workshop is expected to attract some 100 Arab landmine and bomb experts and officials, representatives from UN and civil society organizations, businessmen, scholars and university professors.