Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Desert Environment

These proceedings contain technical papers presented at the Kuwait-Japan Symposium on Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Desert Environment, which was held in Kuwait on 3-4 March, 1996. Kuwait was selected as the site for this fourth symposium because of its enormous need for restoring and rehabilitating its desert environment, and because of the progress which Kuwait and Japan have been making collectively in these efforts at both pilot and field-scale levels. Kuwait's desert land has recently suffered from one of the worst man-made disasters of all time, having been polluted with vast amounts of oil from the nearly 7000 oil wells that were destroyed during the Gulf War. The three themes for the symposium were: remediation of the polluted soil; enhancement of the visual impact of greenery; and recycling of wastewater for rehabilitation purposes. The first theme was highlighted with presentations on the KISR/PEC Oil-Lake Beds Remediation Project. The second theme was launched with a broad-based discussion on new strategies and alternatives for greening the desert and a summary of the Kuwait National Greenery Plan which is now being prepared. The third theme featured presentations on water resource management in Japan and in KISR's Reverse Osmosis Project to make municipal wastewater recyclable for greenery use in densely populated areas. The closing session culminated in perspectives and recommendations from both Kuwait and Japan and with a historical summary of the long-standing Kuwait/Japan Collaborative Program.

Opening Session. Welcome address (H.E. Dr Abdul Muhsen Medej Al-Medej). Congratulatory address (H.E. Jun Kawashima). Opening address (A. Al-Otaibi). Keynote address: Current state of water resources in Japan and course of technological cooperation (Y. Takahasi). Keynote address: Overview of Kuwait experience in restoration and rehabilitation of the desert environment (N. Al-Awadhi). Session 1: Soil Bioremediation. Remediation and rehabilitation of oil-lake beds in Kuwait: I. Bioremediation of oil-contaminated soil (M.T. Balba et al.). Bioremediation of oil-contaminated coastal zone (M. Ishihara et al.). Enrichment of Kuwaiti desert samples with hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms during a simulated oil spill (S.S. Radwan). Technologies for cleaning and restoring contaminated soil (S. Fujioka). Exploratory work on physical/chemical treatment of oil sludge (K. Puskas et al.). Biochemical aspects of bioremediation of oil-contaminated soil (R. Hamzah). Preservation of the environment using photocatalysts (M. Hashimoto et al.). The oil lakes environmental disaster (A.J. Abdul Salam). Contaminated soil remediation by the terrasteam process (M. Kato). Session 2: Greenery Development New strategies and alternatives for greening the desert (M. Jensen). Overview of the Kuwait National Greenery Plan (D. Kater). Afforestation methods for arid lands (K. Terakawa). New technology for greenery development in arid lands (M. Suzuki). Role of plant tissue culture propagation in the rehabilitation of desert environment (M. AboEl-Nil). New plant growth promoter (T. Tanaka, Y. Hotta). Session 3: Water Utilization for Greenery Management of water resources in Japan (M. Morita). Pretreatment of the municipal wastewater feed for reverse osmosis plants (M. Abdel-Jawad et al.). The recycling of water in urban regions (Y. Ogawa). The feasibility of sea water irrigation in arid lands (T. Yagura et al.). Closing session Japanese perspectives and recommendatons (Y. Takahasi). Kuwait perspectives and highlights of Kuwait/Japan Collaborative Program (M. Al-Attar). List of participants. Author Index.