The tour is part of a series of visits that the minister is making to explore the latest developments in the projects carried out by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE). MOCCAE officials accompanying the minister included HE Sultan Alwan, Assistant Undersecretary for the Regions Sector and Acting Assistant Undersecretary for the Food Diversity Sector, HE Eng. Saif Al Shara, Assistant Undersecretary for the Sustainable Communities Sector, and Eng. Yousif Al Rayssi, Director of the Municipal Affairs Department.  

With 50 percent of the cost supported by the Follow-up Committee of the Initiatives of the UAE President, the AED132 million plant will process solid municipal waste generated in Ajman and Umm Al Quwain to produce energy to power cement plants that usually rely on charcoal for their operations, according to the press release.

HE Dr Al Nuaimi received a briefing on the plant that will start operations in Q4 2020. Spanning 40 hectares, the state-of-the-art facility will have two parallel operation lines – one to receive non-recyclable waste from waste segregation units, turn it into alternative fuel, and transport this fuel to cement factories, while the second receives recyclable waste from segregation units and conveys it to recycling companies. It is expected to process 1,500 tons of municipal solid waste every day to produce 300,000 tons of alternative fuel annually.

After touring the waste-to-energy plant, the minister visited the Marine Environment Research Centre in Umm Al Quwain that comprises labs for nutrients, microbes, seawater quality, fisheries research, biological studies, and plastic particles monitoring. He learned about the Centre’s activities aimed at evaluating the state of the country’s marine environment that includes surveying water quality, tracking the concentrations of marine nutrients and plastic particles in seawater, identifying climate change-resistant coral species, monitoring the stocks of kingfish, cobia, safi, and sheri in UAE waters, and inspecting samples in local fish markets. He was also updated on their projects.

During the visit, HE Dr Al Nuaimi praised the exceptional efforts of MOCCAE’s teams and stressed the importance of regularly updating work processes in line with the latest developments in environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation.