Proposal to use solar energy at state departments' buildings

Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah

KUWAIT: Kuwait Medical Association (KMA) said it supports the demands of nurses and their society, and rejected involving doctors in 'attacks' made against the Minister of Health Dr Bassel Al-Sabah. The society said that doctors still has important demands that were not met yet, adding that it is working hard with the ministry to fulfill them. "It is normal to give the health minister time to meet the demands, since they are tied to other state departments including the Civil Service Commission, Fatwa and Legislation Department and others," Head of KMA Dr Ahmad Al-Enezi said. He pointed to the pressures the ministry is under due to the sensitive nature of health services, especially following the opening of new hospitals and centers such as the Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital.

Solar panels

Head of the technical committee at the Municipal Council Abdul-Aziz Al-Maal demanded amendments to the system by which buildings of state departments are constructed, saying that the current system results in 'major expenses' that the state ends up paying for electricity, while natural energy resources are available yet remain unutilized. Maal proposed to commit ministries and other state departments to install solar panels to produce electric power and reduce consumption of traditional means of energy sources.

Electronic project

Kuwait Food Bank said it joined the electronic platform that was launched by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor which in order to follow the performance, reports, expenses and donations of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in and outside Kuwait. Director General of Kuwait Food Bank Salem Al-Hamar said the bank is one of the first charity entities that signed into the new electronic platform. He said the new system comes as part of the ministry's efforts towards developing the charity and humanitarian projects in Kuwait, while maintaining secrecy and security in transferring information. Hamer thanked the Social Affairs Ministry in the person of Assistant Undersecretary for Planning and Administrative Sector Affairs Hassan Kazim, and the working teams at the ministry which exerted great efforts to come out with such a project.

Cleaning companies

Deputy Director General of Kuwait Municipality for Municipal Services Khalaf Al-Mutairi said the committee responsible for qualifying and categorizing cleaning companies completed the documents of 17 public cleanliness tenders as published in 'Kuwait Al-Youm'. Mutairi said that cleaning contracts were developed to improve the service's level, as a new garbage collection truck was brought, provided with a hydraulic emptying system to collect garbage from narrow streets in addition to an automated sweeper to clean inner streets. He said that a crane was brought in to tow vehicles to remove abandoned and scrap cars, in addition to a small sweeper to clean pavements, while the number of boats was increased to two to clean islands periodically.

Road projects

Director General of Public Authority for Roads and Transportation Eng Ahmad Al-Hossan inspected the first and second stages of the development of Al-Ghous street, to follow the progress there. Hossan urged those working on the projects to speed up the process of work so that they can enter service as soon as possible and improve the roads' network around the country. Director of the first stage project, which seeks to develop the road from Fifth Ring Road to the Sixth Ring Road, Eng Khalid Al-Miraj, spoke about the implementation stand and completion percentages. He said that the project is one of the most important projects the authority is implementing at the cost of KD 77.3 million to serve the traffic from adjacent residential areas. Meanwhile, director of the second stage, which starts from Sabah Al-Salem area to the Seventh Ring Road, Eng Anwar Al-Beloushi, said the project is going on as planned. He said the project is one of the major development projects, carried out at a cost of KD 70.9 million to develop Al-Ghous street and increase the flow of traffic.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi and A Saleh