State of CP and EMS in Syrian Arab Republic

1. State of CP and EMS in Syrian Arab Republic Eng. Rouida Nahar National Focal Point for CP Center

2. Current Situation of the Economic and industrial sector in Syria • Main activities are small and medium enterprises. • Mainly located in Damascus Countryside, Aleppo and Homs. • Majority of them are textile and food industries. • Treatment of their effluents is very expensive. • They don’t consider wastes as a priority.

3. Main hot spots related to the pollution sources • Damascus, Damascus Countryside, Aleppo, Homs, Banias and Tartous. • Main pollution resources are: • Wastewater from: • Olive oil miles, oil refineries, tanneries, and fertilizers. • Air emissions from: • Cement, refineries, fertilizers, batteries and power generating stations. • Sludge from: • Oil refineries as a solid waste, wastewater treatment plant.

4. Pollution problems resulted from main services industries • elimination of their waste in Non-Environmental ways. • Weakness of dealing with the pharmaceutical waste (collecting, regulations, …etc.) • Weakness of waste collection from some tourism services in some areas. • Problems in sites which located next to the shoreline (Banias Refinery, etc…)

5. Achievements in Env. Management (1) • A lot of achievements have been done. • Few companies have ISO 14000 certificate. • Many companies have other certificates related to the Env. Management such as (Good housekeeping, Eco-Mapping) and that had been done by local Env. Directorates in the main cities. • Environmental Management System project to promote some companies to apply EMAS (mainly ISO 14000) which is supported by EU/LIFE. • A program for training trainers for EMS supported by UNEP/ROWA.

6. Achievements in Env. Management (2) • The Ministry of Environment is coordinating with some regional and international organizations to establish Cleaner Production Center in Syria. • A draft organization chart has been setup for launching the CP Center activities. • All related agencies have a role in this Center such as (Ministry of Industry, Chamber of Industry, etc…)

7. Obstacles • Weakness of awareness related to the CP principles. • Weakness of needed capacity concerning the CP methodologies. • Weakness of needed capacity and the mechanisms to apply the economic instruments to encourage the industrialists to apply the CP methodology.

8. NEAP and the CP • The Ministry of Environment has been prepared a National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) and has been approved in 2003 by the Environmental Protection Council (EPC). • The Ministry trying according to the NEAP to promote using CP practices and renewable resources. • Many national environmental standards has been established to promote CP practices.

9. EIA considerations • The EIA unit at the MSEA gives yearly permissions for the new and existing industrial activities. • The EIA study take in considerations: • the site selection. • The used technologies. • Then the inspection will done to make sure that those plants have acceptable activities.

10. Some economic instruments • The taxes and fines on wastes are exist which are used to improve the waste services. • The new Env. Law No.50 for the year of 2002 Gives incentives for the clean industry and taxation to the polluted activities. • The updated Law No.10 also gives good incentives for the investors who invest in the environmental field and introduce clean technologies.

11. Proposed Future Steps • More co-operation and coordination with the RAC/CP to assist the NFPs to apply the CP in their countries. • Set up a mechanism to assist the NFPs in both financial and technical issues to achieve a CP case studies. • More training workshops in the MAP countries concerning the CP principals.