Nightly Burning

For many years now, Doha, Qatar has been burning its garbage from thousands of homes in out in the open causing massive environmental damage on a nightly basis. This occurs in the northwest part of the city called Ar Rayyan. The burning is 7 days a week and lasts throughout the nights. The prevailing nightly winds slowly carry the thick, choking smoke across the flat, tree-less city, bothering tens of thousands of residents. The pollution is so strong and pervasive that it enters unhindered directly into homes. Since the winds at night are usually calm and slow-moving, it becomes the only source of what people can breathe throughout the night.

Residents Upset

The result is many nights a week residents in the area, locals and expats alike, are awoken to the sickening stench of burning plastic, paper, metal, styrofoam, and anything else that was collected during that day from the city. None of it is recycled or separated, and no incinerators are used. The burning is on the Dukkan highway (25.366209,51.37104) and people are understandably upset. The Qataris themselves want it stopped and have said so publicly on the popular talk radio show “Good Morning Doha”, where people are invited to phone in and discuss issues. In January of 2012, locals voiced their outrage at letting the constant burning continue, pointing out that it was bad for the health of their families and demanding that it be stopped. After that, the burning stopped for one month and then started again.

Reported Symptoms

Burning eyes and throat, headaches, nausea,vomiting, racing heart rate, stress and sleep deprivation are some of the symptoms reported. Children are bothered more easily and have been reported to wake up crying from the stench as it permeates inside people’s homes while they try to sleep.

Wide Area Affected

The burning has continued to get worse at this city grows as a quick pace. The hours and intensity of the burning has increased. Some nights the burning starts as early as 9 pm, with most nights at 11 pm. It stops at sunrise and sometimes lingers until 6 or 7 am.

A huge swath of the north-western part of the city is affected, from Education City campus and housing for tens of thousands of students and staff, to as far south as Landmark Mall, to College of the North Atlantic and Qatar University to the East, depending on the wind direction. Almost every night the wind is South to South-East, carrying the pollution directly into the city.

Publicity

During the recent WISE conference held at the new Qatar National Convention Center at the beginning of November 2012, the burning was halted for the entire 7 days of the conference. Once the conference was over and the international participants had presumably left the country, the burning started again, only for longer hours and with greater intensity to burn off excess garbage that had accumulated during the week.

With the Global Climate Summit being held in the same conference centre, the burning is expected to be stopped temporarily again until the international delegates have come and gone.

The fact the burning was stopped just for the WISE conference has caused critics to suggest a number of things:

The Qatari government is fully aware of the burning. They know people strongly object to it. They are able to stop it if they want to. They don’t want international attention brought to it.

Since this issue has not been openly discussed in the media here, many people do not know that it is happening; they only know something smells. Ask any of the hundreds of night security at compounds in the area and they’ll tell you they smell it every night but have no idea what it is.

Health Dangers

But the health effects are serious and wide-ranging. They affect all members of the population, from the Beduins living in the desert to the upper class Al Thanis that have huge villas under construction in the area, to the many expats brought in to the country to help it grow. Here is a list from the New York State of Environmental Conservation:

Dioxins and furans (immune suppressions, hormone system disruption, cancer)

Benzene (leukemia)

Formaldehyde (eye, nose and throat irritant, difficulty in breathing, skin rashes, cancer)

Particulate matter (respiratory problems, cardiac arrhythmia, heart attacks)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cancer)

Hydrogen chloride (corrosive to the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes, may cause respiratory tract irritation and chronic bronchitis)

Hydrogen cyanide (neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, and thyroid effects)

Carbon monoxide (reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood)

Ash which may contain the following heavy metals: Cadmium (lung damage, kidney disease) Arsenic (gastrointestinal problems, anemia, kidney and liver disease, cancer) Mercury (nervous system and kidney damage) Chromium (respiratory effects, cancer)



Read more on the serious dangers of chemicals released from open burning at Zendergroup.org (pdf).

“(in Doha)…There was a sharp rise in the total number of cancer cases during the period 2002-2006 of 57.1% compared to the period 1991-1996.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18439066. Is there a connection?

Appeal for Help

Please forward this website to anyone you know who might be able to bring attention to this ongoing issue so that we may get it stopped as soon as possible.

How to Verify

Although no mention has been made in any newspaper or media website in the country about it, anyone can confirm the for themselves it is happening by driving along the Dukkan highway (25.366209,51.37104) any night from between 11:00-12:00 pm to 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. A word of caution though, the fumes are strong and cause headaches and burning in the chest from that close proximity.

Solutions

Pollution is typically due to lack of resources, and Doha is one of the richest countries in the world with an estimated 200 year supply of the world’s largest natural gas reserves. New airports, sports stadiums, highways, artificial islands, hotels, malls and conference centers have been built. So they can afford to treat their garbage properly. And with thousands of kilometers of uninhabited desert in the country, they have space.

Options:

The site can be moved away from populations. A recycling program can be introduced. Incinerators can be installed instead of having the waste burn slowly through the night producing mostly smoke.

Hope for the Future

Qatar has done an admirable job of helping one of the fastest growing countries on the planet improve. Let’s hope they take the lead here and do the right thing.

Please Share

If this health issue concerns you, please take a moment now to email, tweet, or otherwise share the information on this website to others, including the media, to get the word out so action can be taken to stop this. Thank you.