Finance Minister of Bahrain, Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, opened the workshop.
Also present were undersecretaries and other government officials, in addition to officials from environmental agencies.
“This workshop is coordinating with all government agencies in Bahrain. Such a combined effort, with the government agencies and the experts, helps in enhancing our existing programmes in energy efficiency,” Shaikh Ahmed said.
He said the focus of such an event was on improving the implementation of energy saving programmes and policies related to the better use of energy.
“The various ministries that are here join hands with us and the World Bank in understanding what other countries have done and the policies that can be drafted in improving our overall energy conservation efforts. This is expected to result in maximizing resources and a growth in the country’s economy,” said the minister.
Nayef Omar Al Kalali, Undersecretary of Public Works Affairs at Bahrain’s Ministry of Works, told the BNA that the Ministry of Works had already embarked on the green building initiatives, “which stemmed from our strategy, in line with Vision 2030.”
“The primary objective is to reduce energy by using available energy efficient technology and energy efficient materials in buildings,” he said.
“We try to adopt them in all the projects such as schools, hospitals and all public buildings that the ministry of works will construct,” added the undersecretary.
“The ministry had already started forming up teams to study the initiative and put forward best practices recommendations,” he added. “We’ve already implemented some of the basics of green building elements such as central air conditioning, better building insulation materials,” said Al Kalali.
“We are doing our best to reduce this emission and also using certain mechanical systems such as airbags, water pipes and certain types of cooling gases that are used in these air conditioners,” responding to a question on initiatives on containing the emissions from air conditioning, Al Kalali said.
“These initiatives have had a great impact on the reduction of emissions which has contributed positively to the ozone and to Bahrain environment,” he said.
“The issue of going green in all aspects and conserving as much of the resources is become the ministry’s prime concern,” he said.
“We’ve been looking at this for the last two years and we put a plan to introduce the green building plans. The solution will result from various steps taken, the first of which is the creation of awareness at the level of investors and builders,” Dr Nabeel Mohammed Abulfatih, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Municipalities Affairs and Urban planning told the BNA.
The second step, he said, is the incentives and here the ministry is seriously looking at giving incentives to those who go green in their construction, including in the construction of houses.
“The third step is the changes that we plan in our laws and regulations. We already worked on that and introduced it to the government. We have asked for the gradual enforcement of laws and regulations that would push for green building technology,” he added.
The World Bank team spoke at length on the countries that have resorted to green technology in their construction industry.
The benefits, both tangible and intangible, they said resulted in major gains for these countries. Through their presentations, they urged the audit of all efforts at going green. Incentives, they said, are a must for those who achieve their goals and go about enhancing on these achievements.