Under Qatar National Vision 2030, the program focuses on environmental and sustainable development

2021 has already started off as a good year for the environment as Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality and Environment launched the first phase of an annual programme to monitor the marine environment.

The Qatar Marine Environmental Monitoring Programme of 2021 is the first step towards a detailed semi-annual report to detail the marine environment in and around Qatar and falls under the sustainable development pillar in the country’s National Vision 2030. 

Experts began collecting water, marine sediments and seabed soil samples as well as other data from 14 coastal sites in Qatar, including beaches, marine reserves and industrial areas. 

The environmental laboratory analyses these samples to determine the characteristics and physical results of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentrations, pH, transparency of water and chlorine. 

Chemical measurements are carried out through chemical elements, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and the chemically and biologically consumed oxygen.

Qatar has been focusing on improving the marine environment in waters around the country in recent years.

More than 400,000 small fish with an average weight of 6.5 grams have been released into Qatari marine waters by the Department of Fisheries at the MME over the past year alone. 

The ministry also previously installed two ‘detection buoys’ at the Hamad and Ruwais ports to help monitor and improve coastal and marine water quality.

The continued environmental monitoring buoys act as an early warning system against any pollution or disruption of the marine environment through round-the-clock, real-time monitoring.

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