KOC has recently released the first part of a book titled “The Remediation Journey of the Kuwaiti Environment" (KOC – KERP Journey), documenting all its tasks and achievements in the said programme, which is the first of its kind in the world and is held under the patronage of the Compensations Committee of the United Nations and the participation of many Kuwaiti authorities including KOC. It aims to help Kuwait remedy the environmental damages incurred during the brutal Invasion.
This book has been launched on the sidelines of the 'Safety, Remediation and Greening' event organized by the Soil Remediation Group under the patronage and attendance of DCEO Major Projects and Technical Services, Bader Al-Munaifi, and cooperation with standing partnerships with contractors. The event was also attended by the manager of the Soil Remediation Group, Sami Al-Yaqout and team leaders and representatives from the Kuwait National Focal Point for Environmental Project (KNFPEP), and representatives of the United Nations Committee, the Public Authority for the Environment and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR).
In the following lines, “Al-Kuwaiti" reviews the details of the achievement of this book and its contents, its goals and the challenges it went through and the support it received to be published in a record time.
A year and a half …
The book, which is issued in English, is made up of 300 pages of information, data, documents and illustrations reviewing the stages of the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Program, especially the leading contribution by KOC.
Group Manager, Sami Al-Yaqout said in an announcement to “Al-Kuwaiti" that this book came as a result of continuous work that lasted for a year and a half, during which data was collected and the content was made ready, clarifying that the book shed light on the KERP projects that were executed by the company since 2012, while Environmental Remediation Program – Soil, leader Muthanna Al-Mumin said that the book was about the history of this program, and is the first volume because there will be other volumes to document the rest of the work.
From her part, environment engineer in the Environment Remediation Support Group, Aisha Al-Barood, said that she was the one who had the idea of the book in order to document the events and achievements carried out in the framework of the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Program (KERP). She gave a presentation of the book and signed it for the attendees during the Safety, Remediation and Greening event that was held on this occasion. She said that the book was intended for the benefit of KOC personnel and for future generations. Al-Barood reminded that this book was made by the Soil Remediation Support Team (the Environmental Section), related to the Environmental Remediation Group, who collected the information and formulated it in an easy and concise way so that it could be accessible to all (from the layman to the expert), in collaboration with EMEK Consulting (the former contractor who provided information about the program) and WORLEY Consulting Co. in addition to the members of the Kuwait National Focal Point for Environmental Projects (KNFPEP) and the UN Experts Committee, and the Information Team who were in charge of the design and printing of the book.
Nine Chapters
Al-Barood praised the cooperation she found from everybody for issuing this book in a record time, as it was first supposed that the work would last for years, but with the concentration of efforts from everybody and continuous cooperation, the book was issued in a year and a half, pointing out that an electronic copy of the book was sent to all KOC personnel.
She clarified that the book is made up of nine chapters, with the first three chapters talking about the events of the brutal invasion whereas the following three chapters (5, 6 and 7) were about the achievements of KOC in the framework of the Environment Remediation Program.
In turn, chapter seven shed light on the lessons drawn from environmental remediation projects while chapter eight was about the workshops, research and participations of the company (presentations, worksheets, etc.) in international conferences, and chapter nine included words by the KERP team.
Many Challenges
Al-Barood talked about the challenges facing the issuance of the book, saying that getting information from 1990 until December 2022 in a record time was a great challenge. That is why all the related teams in the company have been consulted as well as external parties (the Kuwaiti Focal Point, UN counsellors, EMEK and WORLEY counselors to get this information.
An electronic library was also established where all the information, contracts and documents had been included, which facilitated paving the way for this book, in addition to the formation of a large work team and work distribution as per specialty (the environment, contracts, soil remediation, technology, etc.) to achieve this important document.
She added that among the challenges was the formulation of the book in a simple language that is accessible to all, organizing information in a homogeneous way and presenting it in a way that was full of suspense, clarifying that making all the information available about the contracts, strategies, the execution of many projects for many years needed more time due to the multitude of teams in the company, which were contacted with this intention.
Praise and Respect
It should be pointed out that, during the safety, remediation and greening event, the first copy of the book was handed over to the secretary general of the Kuwait National Focal Point for Environmental Projects (KNFPEP), Naheel A. Al Abdulrazzaq, who thanked KOC in her speech, especially Aisha Al-Barood, for her effort to achieve this book. The people involved in the environment remediation program and the team of the focal point and UN experts praised the project.
Copies of the book were distributed and those who contributed to it were honoured in addition to giving visual presentations about the progress of the preparatory tasks in KERP and organizing a fair for contracting companies and technical sessions about the projects.
In its turn, KOC honoured some engineers who contributed to this project during the celebration of the International Women's Day. It also honoured two members of the fire fighter's team who extinguished burning wells, namely the manager of the Soil Remediation Group, Sami Al-Yaqout, and the only woman in the group, Sara Akbar.
This event received respect from many foreign embassy representatives and other distinguished personalities, namely those concerned with KERP, which aims to remediate contaminated soil to give a new life to the Kuwaiti environment.
The Higher Management receives a Copy of the Book
On the sidelines of the weekly meeting of the higher management, the CEO, Ahmad Jaber Al-Eidan and his deputies received a copy of KOC-KERP Journey, which documents all the works and achievements by the company in the framework of this programme.
The participants were briefed on the content of the book prepared by the Soil Remediation Group in cooperation with some departments within the company and other external bodies concerned with this effort.
The director of the Soil Remediation Group, Sami Al-Yaqout and Environment Engineer Aisha Al-Barood explained to the CEO and his deputies the efforts surrounding this book, which documents all the operations of remediation to the soil contaminated due to the invasion, telling a saga that started with the fire fighters who extinguished the fire of the burning wells and continued with the workers within the Kuwait Soil Remediation Programme.
The book was acclaimed and praised by the higher management members who praised the efforts of those who worked on it, and the CEO asked to translate into Arabic.
Projects to restore Kuwait's Treasures
KOC exerted tremendous efforts in the framework of its contribution to the programme of Kuwait for soil remediation, taking on the charge of preparation and for all the stages of the project till the signature of contracts with specialized companies and starting the treatment process.
In 2021, KOC signed 5 contracts with 4 companies, including local contractors and international remediation companies from Saudi Arabia, China, Finland and Italy.
In February 2023, the contractors' partnerships announced that they achieved good progress as they had finished the first stage of the works, consisting of cleaning areas from unexploded ammunitions, defining the size of contaminated soil and the extent of contamination and its characteristics (defining the size of soil, pollution levels and features), in addition to undertaking experimental treatment to define the efficiency and efficacy of the treatment (what is treatable and what is not).
These contracts are currently under total treatment while some contractors are preparing their own treatment techniques and others have already started the process of cleaning.
Until the realization of this report, more than 400,000 tons of soil have been remediated, with more soil being excavated and transported for remediation on a daily basis, with the transportation of 1.5 million to piling up areas for cleaning and separation.
In addition to the projects that are under way, the company has recently signed three contracts with internal contractors and their international partners in soil remediation from Germany, the Czech Republic and China.
KOC is quite sure that its contracting model provides a framework for success and if it is possible to measure on the results achieved so far, it would be certain that the results are a source of pride for all.
The company did not stop at this point, as it currently has a tender for planting about 42 kilometers of land, with this tender marking the end of a dark chapter in the history of Kuwait and restoring the golden sand to its land.