A Kuwaiti official at the public authority of the environment on Wednesday called on citizens and expatriates alike to reduce water consumption at the current time in order to protect marine environment after the malfunction that hit Mishref waste water recycling station yesterday. In a statement to KUNA, Vice Chairman of the authority Ali Heidar said the current increase in water consumption will “destroy” the marine environment unless the damage is fixed. Some 180,000 cubic meter of poisoned water had found its way to sea, which represented a major threat to the environment, Heidar noted, pointing out that inspection of the Mishref station is “extremely crucial”. He also noted that the authority, along with the ministry of public works and the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate are on unremitting contact in this regard.

Terming the situation as “abnormal and not easy,” Heidar urged the ministry of public works to speed up maintenance of the station.
“The authority began taking samples from various sea levels in order to verify magnitude of the damage and its impact on quality of drinking water,” he said, cautioning citizens and expatriates alike from swimming, fishing and even sitting on beaches, especially the coastline from Blajat to al-Miseela water village. He concluded to say that “luckily” Kuwaiti waters are shallow, as the hot sun and dry weather would also contribute in solving the problem in a natural manner. The plant in Mishref was hit with the malfunction yesterday, flooding the station and causing it to be filled with poisonous gas. Firefighters responded to the incident but untreated sewage water from the plant is being released into street drains in the area. The problem occurred with the last three pumps at the station broke down. Ten other pumps have been out of service for some time.

Arabtimes