OSLO: Saudi Arabia participated in the international conference “Protecting Children in Armed Conflict – Our Common Future” held recently in Oslo, Norway.
The Saudi delegation was led by the nation’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, or KSrelief, represented by Dr. Hana Omar, director of the Community Support Department and acting director of the Partnerships and International Relations Department.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the conference with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and Save the Children International.
Participants discussed the main challenges facing children in armed conflict, as the Norwegian foreign minister pledged NOK1 billion ($90.74 million) over three years.
KSrelief is working across the world to help educate and protect children in conflict-ridden areas, said Omar during the plenary session.
Omar later told Arab News that KSrelief provides psychological and mental health programs for children with disabilities and orphans, and creates awareness in communities about the importance of children’s rights, including being aware of attempts to recruit them as soldiers, and the dangers of mines.
These projects are delivered in cooperation with partners in the UN and local organizations, according to international humanitarian law, she said.
“Until today, more than 800 projects have benefited more than 163 million children with a cost of over $800 million,” she said.
A unit for the protection of children was established in the joint forces of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen, and a memorandum of understanding was signed in 2019 with the Office of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
The Saudi delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Human Rights Commission, and the Child Protection Unit of the Joint Forces of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen.
Omar said: “KSrelief also offers a project for the reintegration of children formerly associated with the armed conflict since 2017 due to the increased number of child recruitment and ideological indoctrination campaigns by militias in Yemen.”
In Yemen, due to the rising number of mines, KSrelief has implemented a humanitarian clearance project since 2018. “To date, nearly 400,000 mines have been removed, benefiting more than 29 million people, including children,” said Omar.
She added that four centers are being supported for prostheses and training for local medical personnel. “Approximately 47,000 artificial limbs were installed and rehabilitated, including 8,358 for children, most of whom were affected by mines.”
The conference is in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA, the African Union, the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and the Child Protection Alliance in Humanitarian Action.
Saudi Arabia highlights aid work at Oslo conference on protecting children in armed conflict
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Saudi Arabia highlights aid work at Oslo conference on protecting children in armed conflict
- KSrelief led the Saudi delegation, headed by Dr. Hana Omar
- Over 800 projects benefited 163m children, at cost of $800m
Thai scholar thanks Saudi Arabia for ‘transformative role’ in his life
RIYADH: Abdullah Mustafa, a prominent Muslim scholar from Thailand and one of the guests of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ Program for Umrah and Visit, has expressed gratitude to Saudi Arabia for its pivotal role in shaping his life and career, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Fifty years ago, a young Mustafa embarked on a life-changing journey to Saudi Arabia, receiving a scholarship from the Islamic University of Madinah. He fondly recalled the simplicity of the Prophet’s Mosque during his early days — a stark contrast to the magnificent religious landmark it has become today.
During his 16 years in Saudi Arabia, Mustafa immersed himself in Islamic studies, earning a doctorate in Islamic advocacy and interfaith dialogue. His academic pursuits were particularly focused on understanding Buddhism, the predominant religion in Thailand, and developing effective strategies for Islamic outreach.
Upon his return to Thailand, he dedicated his life to spreading the message of Islam. He translated the Holy Qur’an into the Thai language, making it accessible to a wider audience. His tireless efforts have led to numerous conversions and a strengthened Muslim community in Thailand.
He emphasized the enduring impact of Saudi Arabia’s support for Muslims worldwide and highlighted the “esteemed” position held by graduates of Saudi universities in various fields, including education and Islamic jurisprudence.
Looking to the future, Mustafa expressed hope that his daughter, currently studying at Taibah University in Madinah, will continue his legacy of serving Islam.
He acknowledged the Kingdom’s progressive approach to education, emphasizing the importance of women scholars in Islamic advocacy.
He also extended heartfelt thanks to King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their unwavering commitment to serving Islam and Muslims around the world, and gratitude to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs for its endeavors to promote moderate Islam and foster “global Islamic unity.”
Saudi Arabia’s 26th relief plane lands in Lebanon
- Continuing mission follows the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian efforts for the Lebanese population displaced by the conflict continues with the 26th relief plane arriving at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Saturday morning.
The aircraft, operated by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, was loaded with various relief aid, including food, medical and shelter supplies, state news agency SPA reported.
The continuing mission follows the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to support the Lebanese people.
KSrelief conducts medical outreach in Yemen, Djibouti and Bangladesh
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) conducted various medical activities in Yemen, Djibouti and Bangladesh in cooperation with volunteer organizations and specialists.
In Yemen’s Socotra, 16 specialist volunteers successfully completed a project involving specialized and general pediatric surgeries. During the campaign from Nov. 16 to 23, KSrelief’s medical team conducted 404 examinations, performed 60 surgeries, and provided medicine for 208 patients.
In Djibouti, the aid agency launched on Wednesday a cardiac catheterization surgery project – with seven specialists in the team – and has successfully performed four procedures since.
In Bangladesh’s city of Rangpur, KSrelief implemented the Saudi Volunteer Project to combat blindness and its contributive diseases. The center’s volunteer medical team examined 5,082 cases, performed 456 specialized eye surgeries, and distributed 1,454 eyeglasses from Nov. 22 to 26.
How researchers in Saudi Arabia are turning desalination waste into valuable resources
- Industry experts are working on technology to recover minerals from the highly saline waste liquid produced from desalination.
- Brine, a byproduct from turning sea water into fresh water, can also be repurposed for energy production, KAUST professor says
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has established itself as a global leader in the rapidly advancing water desalination market, doubling its production capacity, while developing new technology to repurpose the harmful byproduct of the process — brine.
While desalination is effective for achieving water sustainability, producing drinking water from sea water in arid regions, it leaves behind a highly concentrated saline fluid. If this brine is disposed of back into the sea without treatment, it poses a potential danger to marine ecosystems.
Simply put, brine is highly concentrated seawater that contains contaminants, including chemicals used during the desalination process.
“The chemicals should be all neutralized,” said Noreddine Ghaffour, a research professor at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
He told Arab News that “there is no reason to dump chemicals into the sea, because they are all negatively affecting marine life, including chlorine and antiscalants.”
Water desalination scientists in Saudi Arabia have developed technologies to neutralize chemicals in brine before discharge and to disperse salt over a radius of up to 2 km when reintroduced into the sea.
Ghaffour, who was granted Saudi citizenship for his work and expertise on desalination, said that researchers and industry experts believe the future of the process is in recovering minerals, while treating the brine and achieving zero liquid discharge.
While around 70 percent of Earth is covered in water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh, of which 1 percent is easily accessible, according to the National Geographic website.
Water desalination separates salt ions from sea water to make it safe for consumption. Salinity levels vary by body of water; for example, the Red Sea has 40 grams of salt per liter, while the Arabian Gulf’s salinity is 45 grams per liter.
The three main water desalination technologies employed in Saudi Arabia are: multi-stage flash distillation, a thermal process using evaporation and condensation; multiple-effect distillation, which uses electrical energy to break down water ions; and reverse osmosis, which separates water molecules through a semipermeable membrane.
All three technologies produce brine, but reverse osmosis plants generate lower quantities compared with the other two methods.
DID YOUKNOW?
• Some elements, like lithium, are 5,000 times more abundant in the ocean than on land. Lithium is crucial for Li-ion batteries. (Source: KAUST)
• In 2021, Saudi Arabia set a world record for the lowest energy consumption in mobile desalination, reducing it to 2.27 kWh/m³. (Source: Desalination Lab)
• By 2040, 33 countries, including 14 in the Middle East, are projected to face extreme water stress. (Source: Desalination Lab)
Reverse osmosis, according to Ghaffour, uses a method called membrane separation, where osmotic pressure is overcome by a semipermeable membrane that filters out salt ions, allowing only water molecules to pass through.
Ghaffour explained that although the semipermeable membrane effectively filters out about 99 percent of salts, some still manage to pass through, producing brine.
Moreover, osmotic pressure — the force applied to a solution to prevent a solvent from passing through a semipermeable membrane — requires a lot of electrical energy.
“Electricity is one of the most expensive energy forms… the main problem with (reverse osmosis) is that we do this under pressure,” the KAUST professor said.
He added: “The more salt, the higher the osmotic pressure. In order to pass only water molecules through the membrane, we need to apply a pressure which is higher than the osmotic pressure.
“And the osmotic pressure in Red Sea water, for instance, is 30 bar… so we need a pressure higher than 30 bar, which is a very high pressure.”
He also explained that “recovery” refers to “how much water we recover from the sea,” adding that “if the recovery is 50 percent, this means that salt contents are doubled.”
Ghaffour said selecting the correct location for a desalination plant is highly important. Authorities must choose sites with a reliable water intake that will not disrupt marine ecosystems or impact densely populated areas.
According to the UN Environment Programme, unless waste water is properly treated and dispersed, it may form a dense plume of toxic brine, which can degrade coastal and marine ecosystems.
Increased salinity and temperature can reduce dissolved oxygen levels and contribute to the formation of “dead zones” — areas where few marine species can survive.
Ghaffour said that while brine is bad for the environment, it has not caused significant global environmental harm. Over the past 30 to 40 years, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region have experienced few negative side-effects from the desalination process, he said.
Concern over waste water from desalination returning to the sea at a higher temperature is less of an issue with the reverse osmosis method, Ghaffour said. “We have the same temperature as sea water, maybe one degree more, which is affordable.”
Researchers are determined to achieve zero liquid discharge, which involves treating brine until only solids remain. However, this process also concentrates all the salts in the same place.
To remove salt ions from brine, a complex and costly process called mineral recovery is used.
The challenge in mineral recovery lies in the fact that high-value minerals, such as lithium, rubidium, and uranium, are present in brine at very low concentrations.
To make the process efficient and economically viable, further technological advancements are needed.
Currently, “there are no technologies to handle this huge volume,” Ghaffour said. “We are talking about huge volumes of water, like 1 million tons of water (recovered) every day, it’s higher than a river.”
Several technologies have been developed for mineral recovery on a smaller scale. One method involves chemical treatments that precipitate different salts in stages, starting with calcium carbonate and ending with lithium.
Another mineral recovery method involves the use of ion exchange membranes or absorbents designed to capture specific minerals, such as lithium.
One of the largest areas of current research is the magnesium hydroxide family, particularly for its applications in the cement and concrete industry.
Saudi Arabia is already using nanofiltration technology to produce magnesium from magnesium-rich waters, with the next step being the extraction of magnesium hydroxide for cement production.
Expensive and critical minerals like rubidium — which costs around $3,000 per kilo — as well as uranium and lithium, are of great interest, but are costly to extract due to their low concentrations, requiring significantly more energy in the process.
From a commercial perspective, businesses prefer to purchase lithium from produced water — a byproduct of oil and gas production — rather than from brine.
Brine can also be repurposed to enhance the efficiency of the desalination process. Due to its high osmotic potential, brine can be used for energy production.
Ghaffour said that several companies are utilizing reverse electrodialysis to generate energy, which is then used to power the reverse osmosis process.
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In addition, to achieve a circular carbon economy, reverse electrodialysis can be combined with brine dilution for mineral recovery, allowing part of the brine to be reused in an efficient closed-loop system.
“This is what I call a seawater factory,” Ghaffour said. “We take seawater and we produce everything from seawater without polluting back.
“Many experts are saying that in the future, desalinated water, which is what we need most, will itself be a byproduct, because we will have so many more valuable products from the sea. Then this desalinated water will be just one of the byproducts.”
However, he believes that turning this vision into reality will take time.
“We have to distinguish between two things. One is science and the second one is technology scale-up.”
In September 2024, Lihytech, a KAUST startup, announced a partnership with Aramco to strategically collaborate on recovering lithium from oilfield brines using direct lithium extraction technology and a membrane developed at KAUST.
Ghaffour is also collaborating with a Singaporean company, MediSun Energy, to integrate desalination with energy and mineral production, aiming to optimize these processes as a whole. A pilot facility has already been installed in China, with plans for another installation in Saudi Arabia.
“The whole world is working on this (mineral recovery and optimizing desalination). We will see a lot of developments in this, in my opinion,” he said.
Visionary eight-year-old Saudi wins global competition with glasses for blind
- Vision Friend uses cameras, sensors, and alarms
- Design beat nearly 1,000 entries from 19 countries
JEDDAH: An eight-year-old inventor from Saudi Arabia won an international competition for designing a pair of glasses that aim to help blind people navigate the world safely.
Lama Al-Badin, from Dammam, won an $800 cash prize for her Vision Friend design after beating nearly 1,000 entries from 19 countries in the “Glasses of the Future” competition.
Organized by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the competition challenged children worldwide to reimagine eyewear to support eye health and accessibility.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Organized by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the competition challenged children worldwide to reimagine eyewear to support eye health and accessibility.
• Despite her young age, Lama Al-Badin demonstrated resourcefulness throughout the competition. She acknowledged the challenges she faced during the design phase.
Al-Badin’a design impressed the jury with its cameras and sensors that would detect obstacles and alert blind and visually-impaired users of dangers through various alarm sounds and vibrations.
“I always have scientific discussions with my family at home, which often spark various ideas that serve life in meaningful ways,” Al-Badin told Arab News.
“When I learned about the competition through a school announcement, the idea for the glasses emerged. I envisioned them as a companion to help people face road dangers through sensor systems. I wanted to add warning tones to enhance their auditory sensitivity and active awareness.”
Her design incorporates eco-friendly materials such as bamboo and recycled plastic, and includes cutting-edge features like sensors, an alarm system, and a multi-functional charging case.
Despite her young age, Al-Badin demonstrated resourcefulness throughout the competition. She acknowledged the challenges she faced during the design phase and said, “embarking on a new experience was an exciting challenge for me.
“During the design phase, the main challenge was translating my idea and vision from paper into a digital design. At that point, I sought help from my older sister because I hadn’t yet learned this type of drawing.”
Winning the competition has brought immense pride to her family and the country. She said: “I feel happy and proud. Winning is a motivation for me to develop further and achieve more accomplishments.
“I feel proud and hope to be an active member in the development and building of my beloved country.”
Her family, too, played a pivotal role in her journey. “They were very happy with this wonderful achievement. My family is my primary supporter, and I thank them.
“They have been my source of inspiration and encouragement. Praise be to God, I live in an aware family. At home, we love exchanging information and brainstorming solutions to all kinds of problems.”
Al-Badin’s design resonated with Caroline Casey, president of the IAPB and a member of the competition jury.
“The thing that stood out the most was how conscious and aware Lama was about her role in protecting the planet that she lives on and her ability to see how technology can be an enabler,” she told Arab News.
“In her mind, there were no barriers in the way of creating a product that was friendly to the planet and friendly to humans. When you consider her glasses, you’d think, ‘Yeah, why aren’t I doing it?’”
She continued: “A young person’s imagination doesn’t seem to focus on what we can’t achieve but on what is possible. I just love her approach and can’t wait to wear a pair.”
Casey also underscored the broader impact of initiatives like the “Glasses of the Future” competition. She said: “I want every child to be able to ‘see their future,’ both literally and metaphorically. Ensuring that every single child on this planet has access to affordable, accessible eyecare and health determines the future potential of our global citizenship and planet.”
Alongside Al-Badin, five-year-old Grace Rita from Kenya won the Younger Kids category for her vibrant and imaginative glasses, A Friend for My Eyes.
Rita’s design focuses on making eyewear fun and approachable for children with features like glow-in-the-dark frames and customizable lenses.
Besides Casey, the competition’s judging panel was composed of a global jury of experts, including Jo Frost, parenting expert and TV personality, and Dr. Prabha Choksi, ophthalmologist and founder of the Dr. Choksi Vitiligo Foundation.
Frost told Arab News: “I was truly impressed by the creativity and innovation of these little geniuses, each design brought a big smile of joy. We can all agree that eye health is often overlooked in our busy day-to-day lives of raising children, despite its importance to a child’s development and future.
“However, with Lama’s design’s inclusiveness, scientific aspects, and Grace’s bright and inspiring colors, these designs not only demonstrate the need to engage children in the global conversation about eye health but also empower eyewear wearers around the world.”
The competition also comes on the heels of critical research by the IAPB, which revealed that children with low vision learn only half as much as their peers with good or corrected vision in school.
This study, released in collaboration with the Seva Foundation on World Sight Day, underscores the profound impact of early interventions like eye exams and prescription glasses.
