Kuwait Oil Company to clean millions of CM of oil soaked soil

KUWAIT, July 4 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) CEO Imad Al-Sultan announced on Thursday plans to execute three projects to cleanse millions of cubic meters of oil contaminated sand on the national territories.
Speaking to journalists on sidelines of a forum on remediation of the Kuwaiti environment, he said there are three projects that need approval of the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) -- one designed to treat nine million cubic meters of contaminated sand in the south and another for four million cm in Al-Rawdatain, Al-Sabriya, Umm Al-Aish (north) and a third would for four million cm of sand.
Meanwhile, Muthanna Al-Mumen, in charge of the KOC team for sand remediation, said the company had asked for USD three billion from the UN Compensation Commission to treat the polluted soil. "Only eight percent of the restoration projects has been achieved," he explained.
Nevertheless, four projects had been executed -- each costing USD 10 million, he explained further.
Currently, the KOC is involved in a project for clearing the ground of unexploded ordnance, Al-Mumen said further.
The KOC, which is acting according to a strategy to finish all the clearance works by 2024, has removed up to 2.280 million cubic meters of contaminated soil and substances off the Kuwaiti territories.
The Iraqi aggressors, during their 1990-1991 occupation of Kuwait, demolished 114 square kms of oil fields, left behind huge amounts of unexploded ordnance and ammunition, and torched more than 700 oil wells, poisoning the air and the skies.
The KOC spearheads a remediation strategy aimed at building 17 dumping sites for pollutants. (end) osj.rk