DOHA: The Ministry of Environment (MoE) has not been fairing well in its mandate to protect the environment, reveals a recent weekly poll conducted by Al Sharq newspaper.

The survey showed that 48 percent of people said the government’s environment body has fell short of its performance while 42 percent believed that it is still doing well and the rest of 10 percent have no idea about the issue.

In the same survey, 97 percent of the respondents said the ministry should do more stringent measures to go after violators of environmental laws while 21 percent, however, said they are against punishing violators.

Asked about the performance on closely keeping an eye to protect the environment, 62 percent said the Ministry is not doing well, 10 percent said it is doing well while 20 percent said they don’t have any idea at all.

Some of the respondents expressed their opinion on the issue at hand.

Abdullal Rashid Al Buenin said the ministry should vigorously pursue its efforts to preserve a clean environment through massive clean up drives on all kinds of wastes left behind by people, the debris dumped in open areas by companies and abandoned animals outside the city.

He called for a concerted effort with the ministry and the community joining their hands together to address this problem.

He also suggested the ministry’s field officers to be always on the watch on areas where waste are often dumped and at the same time an intensified awareness drive to the people about the importance of environmental protection.

Ali Al Sae supported the idea of taking legal action and punishment to those who are caught damaging the environment including those involved in cutting of trees and causing pollution.

He said it was about time for the government to include environmental protection and preservation as part of the school curriculum to inculcate to the young minds its importance to their future generation. Al Sae said media has a big role to advance the cause citing for example the need for industrial plants to recycle their waste and focus more in the campaign against destructive fishing activities.

Sultan Mohammad has criticised the ministry’s weak performance citing among others their capability to strictly enforce against throwing waste in the coastal areas, pollution from the smoke emitted from the industrial plants and even used oil left behind in the car maintenance services area.

He said nothing has been also done with proper waste disposal citing some big containers of sewage being left behind in open areas. The Peninsula