HSE
Delhi Private School to Distribute Books, Uniforms in Jute Bags from March
Delhi Private School to Distribute Books, Uniforms in Jute Bags from March
Preeti Kannan for KHALEEJ TIMES
DUBAI – In an attempt to make the school premises a ‘no plastics zone’ by next year, Delhi Private School (DPS), Dubai plans to distribute books and uniforms in jute bags to its students.
Students will pick up their text books and uniforms in March, in colourful jute bags.
School authorities say the move is expected to stop the use of at least 5,000 plastic bags, which is now being used to hand out the school kit. “We intend to make the school a ‘no plastic zone’.
“We have been creating an awareness among the students on the need to stop using plastics,” Rashmi Nandkeolyar, principal of DPS, Dubai said.
“The bags can be re-used by the students to bring their books and also may be for shopping.”
The school will bear the cost of making the bags.
The initiative will cover over 5,000 children and parents. “Awareness of the environment needs to start at the grassroot level,” added Nandkeolyar.
The school is also planning to distribute its annual Year Book in newspaper jackets, collected year-round by students.
The students say they can help make a change in the environment by advocating the use of jute bags and hope the other schools would follow the pattern.
“We can make a lot of difference and ensure that our parents use them more frequently,” Shresht Prakash, a Grade VIII student from DPS, Dubai said.
“We have made T-shirts, created banners and put up skits on the need to protect the environment. My parents make sure that we use only paper bags back home.”
“All schools should try and phase out plastics as a first step,” Nikita Arora, a Grade XII of DPS, Dubai said.
Speed Over 60pc Mark and Your Vehicle Will be Impounded
Amira Agarib for KHALEEJ TIMES 21 October 2008
DUBAI – The Dubai Police will impound on the spot vehicles of motorists driving at 60 per cent more than the fixed speed limits, Brigadier Mohammed Saif Al Zafin, Director of the General Department of Traffic, said on Monday.
The decision is part of a two-week campaign launched by the police on Shaikh Zayed Road on Monday.
The campaign will be extended to other roads in Dubai to catch and fine motorists who speed, he added.
Al Zafin said the two-week campaign was launched against reckless motorists who speed, not leave safe distances between vehicles and overtake other vehicles dangerously, which are the major causes of accidents and deaths.
Traffic patrols would first be deployed between Dubai World Trade Centre roundabout and Mall of the Emirates on Shaikh Zayed Road, and later on other highways.
He said cops will stop the driver, ask for his driving licence and car registration papers and issue him a ticket and if he/she is found speeding by 60 per cent or more of the specified limit, the vehicle will be impounded on the spot.
Al Zafin said he himself had to face a speeding driver recently on Shaikh Zayed Road. The driver followed him without leaving enough space between the cars and kept honking. “I moved to the next lane and the driver of the other car pointed angrily with both hands as if I am the one who is at fault. The motorist did the same with other drivers, so I called the police patrol to catch the man before any accident occurred.
“The police impounded the car of the elderly man who was accompanied by a woman who said he was in a hurry. As many as 19,260 fine tickets were issued for not leaving enough space between vehicles during the last nine months, while 17,625 tickets were issued for reckless driving and 714 tickets for risky driving. Al Zafin said UAE nationals aged between 18 and 28 commit most of the major traffic offences. As many as 211 people died in the first nine months of the current year.
Dubai Litterbugs Face the ‘VPD’Joy Sengupta
Dubai Litterbugs Face the ‘VPD’Joy Sengupta
Joy Sengupta for KHALEEJ TIMES 21 October 2008
dubai – A new ‘Voice Portal Device’ (VPD) would enable Dubai Municipality inspectors to record fines against people who are caught spitting on the roads or littering.
The device was launched on Monday at the municipality’s stall at the ongoing Gitex Dubai 2008.
According to Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director-General of Dubai Municipality, by using the device municipality inspectors would be able to issue fines on the spot by simply dialling a dedicated telephone number and reporting the offence.
The system would recognise the voice, dialect and accent in both English and Arabic of the inspectors.
“The device will be handed over to all the inspectors soon. It would be used to record fines of all kinds in the near future,” said Lootah.
“There’s no need to use the telephone’s keypad to report offences. Nor do the inspectors need to note down the details of the offender.
“Officers are required to simply speak. The rest is handled automatically by the system. The solution uses voice biometrics to verify a Dubai Municipality officer’s identity and authenticates it to issue fines and instantly report violations across the city,” Lootah said.
Municipality officials explained that once a violator is caught, the inspector would take his name and mobile number and speak into the gadget, mentioning the person’s name, his mobile number and the nature of violation.
“Once this is done, an SMS is sent to the offender informing him of the fine,” they said.
They stated that the municipality was planning to intensify steps against litterbugs.
“In an effort to make social responsibility towards cleanliness more concrete, the Waste Management Department will give the law-enforcement powers to both the municipality officials as well as those from outside,” Lootah added.
HSE Poster – Wear Seat Belts
HSE Poster – Wear Seat Belts
Dear Friends,
Continuing my efforts to promote the importance of HSE values, I submit a poster created to highlight the usage of Seat Belts. Many times, we forget to request and force our children or fellow passengers sitting at the back to wear the seat belts. The days of slow traffic are gone and now life is at break-neck speed as do accidents break your neck and spine in case of a collision. Although all of us are aware of the use and importance, kindly and without inhibition, use this poster to remind it’s significance as a safety equipment in your car.
All the best and have a great day ahead.
Ramesh Menon
21102008
New mothers unable to leave hospital without child car seat
New mothers unable to leave hospital without child car seat
By Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: October 16, 2008
Dubai: New mothers in Dubai will soon be unable to leave hospital without receiving a child car seat and the guidance to use it, under a new proposal to lower child injuries and death as a result of traffic accidents.
According to the Department of Health and Medical Services (dohms), 6,146 children were injured in accidents between 2001 to 2007 in the UAE.
Abu Dhabi police found that the majority of child deaths and injuries were traffic-related, which they blamed on negligence and lack of proper supervision.
Dubai does not have child-safety laws for vehicles, such as mandating the use of car seats for young children, not putting children in the front seat or restraining them while the vehicle is in motion.
The green team
The green team
By Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary, Senior Feature Writer GULF NEWS Published: October 16, 2008
Did you know that a tonne of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 1,132 litres of oil, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 26,600 litres of water?
Masafi – UAE’s beverage company – knows and believes in these facts and has recently introduced hundred per cent recycled cartons for packaging its bottles. Considering that the UAE has the largest consumption of natural mineral water and that Masafi manufactures about 8.6 million boxes
to deliver about 320 million bottles each year, you can very well imagine the massive impact this step will have in ecological conservation.
In the past three decades, the company has diversified from bottling mineral water to creating flavoured water, juices and also paper tissues.
This is not the only thing the company is doing. Recycling is part of a larger comprehensive action plan that it announced recently.
The plan is to implement it as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy to reduce its eco footprint in the campaign for sustainable living.
Masafi in Arabic means ‘pure water’. In a hilly village at the foot of the Hajar mountains between Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, are a lot of fresh water springs with high mineral content. So when bottled water from those springs was to be marketed 30 years ago, the company decided to go by the name of the village that stood for purity of water.
Over the last three decades, purity of water has come to mean a lot to Masafi. It has taken it upon itself to work with the highest standards of quality and professionalism.
After receiving several awards from the International Bottling Water Association (IBWA) and being granted the toughest standard for environmental management – the ISO 14001-2004 certification – Masafi has decided to go for the carbon action plan.
By doing so, Masafi has become the only beverage company in the UAE to actually take action in saving the environment.
Elaborating on the strategy in an exclusive interview with Friday, Natascha Edelmann, head of marketing on the Masafi Carbon Action Plan – unveiled on July 6 and due to
commence by the end of the year – says:
“Our focus has three strands:
education, collection and disposal.”
“We’re committed to educating society and so we try to initiate schoolchildren into recycling. We have collaborated with the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) to create 18 fun recycling centres in schools and about 10 in public places.
The next step concerns collection. We have appointed environmental executives who oversee the collection of everything collected from these centres. Last year we collected about 280 metric tons of plastic.
With heightened awareness this year we hope to collect about 500 metric tons at least.”This year the company has joined hands with a Fujairah-based company, Horizon Technologies. They recycle all the plastic from these bottles to be used in non-food industries. Until last year, Masafi sold this waste to municipality approved collectors who in turn sold it to dealers abroad, especially in China, who then used the plastic in non-food industries. But this involved shipping and transportation, which in turn meant fuel consumption and therefore a substantial carbon footprint. So, by taking care of the plastic at a local factory, Masafi has successfully reduced the carbon footprint.
These strategies are interactive and require participation. Masafi believes in practising what it preaches so the eco conservation begins right from production.
Edelmann informs: “We’ve installed energy-efficient non-CFC chillers at our manufacturing unit to avoid depletion of the ozone layer and also to conserve energy.” Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are halogenated substances that, once released, deplete the ozone layer, the earth’s natural shield against UV radiation. The non-CFC chillers will
go a long way in conserving the ozone layer and they also require less energy. The old chillers used 0.85 kilowatts
of energy per ton of refrigeration while the non-CFC chillers use 0.6kilowatts of energy.
Masafi’s four-gallon one-way bottles use less resin (18g per litre) than the regular 1.5L bottle (32g per litre) to package the same amount of water. Moreover, the 4G bottles do not utilise water, electricity, chemicals for cleaning purposes compared to returnable bottles. Once empty, the one-time-use bottles are sent for recycling.
The company is doing all it can to redeem these bottles. “We plan to go online soon and address general managers and CEOs of companies with 500 or more employees. Whatever brand of mineral water they might use, we are willing to install recycling cages in their premises free of charge and collect those bottles regularly at no extra cost to them.
The campaign aims to get top management advisers who feel a responsibility to the environment to sign up for it. Anyone can call us to come and collect these bottles
for recycling.”
The company has also revealed that the redemption rate for the 4G bottles has gone up by 30 per cent, indicating that consumers are becoming more environmentally aware and are disposing responsibly by giving it back to the Masafi sales team so that they can send it back to the factory for recycling purposes.
With these and many more strategies in place, Masafi plans to launch their Carbon Action Plan in a big way and make sure of performing the role of an environmentally conscious and socially responsible organisation in the UAE.
Call the toll free number 8005455 for more information.
– Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary is Senior Feature Writer, Friday
GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY – Wednesday 15 October
GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY – Wednesday 15 October
The practice of handwashing with soap tops the international hygiene agenda this year with the first-ever Global Handwashing Day, slated for Wednesday 15 October 2008. With 2008 as the UN International Year of Sanitation, the Global Handwashing Day will echo and reinforce its call for improved hygiene practices.
The agencies leading the Global Handwashing Day efforts are part of the Global PPPHW and include (but are not limited to) the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP/World Bank), UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USAID through the Hygiene Improvement Project (HIP), Procter and Gamble and Unilever.
The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at the critical occasions.
ClicksandWrites 
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