Environment rules violated by 500 businesses in Oman

Muscat: 500 Omani businesses violated environment regulations in 2015, revealed the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA). Almost 100 of those firms were slapped with fines.
According to the report nearly 54 companies violated the Ultra Violet protection limits. And eight companies were fined for chemical violations in Oman.
The Environment planning reported 29 complaints, 59 violations and 21 warnings while inspection and environment monitoring identified nine violations throughout the year.
The ministry was established in 2007 with the objective of regulating laws to protect the Omani environment.
According to a MECA official, new laws are due to be implemented. The official also said that due to rise in numbers of industries over the past 10 years, new emission laws are to be implemented and though most establishments already follow these laws some who don’t adhere to them are expected to pay heavier penalties under the new planned law.
Presently the ministry monitors emissions by industries and automotive firms, obtaining monthly reports from the former on their environmental performance and testing air quality through mobile testers for the latter.
Pollutants
While most firms follow international standards, pollutants like dust need to have a regional or local standard due to the geographic location of the countries, some refineries or factories are located in the middle of a high emissions area which makes it harder for them to follow similar standards as ones located at a lower emission area, therefore there has be a fair and informed standard for everyone.
Several new projects are in the pipeline in Oman to control emissions produced in the country especially ventures in renewable sources of energy to produce power. Oman aims to use its massive solar and wind energy potential to create electricity in the future.