Environment Society of Oman launches "Earth Hour" in Oman

ESO Spearheads Sultanate-Wide Campaign to Reduce Electricity and Water Consumption and Save Over Twice As Much Power as 2011 Earth Hour Event

Muscat, 10th March, 2012: The Environment Society of Oman (ESO) is spearheading the Sultanate's participation in the global "Earth Hour" event that will be held on the 31^st March from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. The annual event aims to create awareness about global warming and the need for smarter electricity and water conservation.

This will be the second time Oman has participated, following the successful campaign led by ESO in 2011 when an estimated 20,000 kilowatts of electricity was saved - or enough to supply 250 houses for a whole day or the whole district of Al Khuwair in Muscat for one hour.

For 2012 the Environment Society has set the country the challenge of saving over 50,000 Kilowatts of power and educate people in Oman about ways they can be smarter in the long term to save electricity and water every day through using simple and easy to achieve techniques.

The campaign this year will be sponsored by Sohar Aluminium, Towell Engineering, NBO, PDO, Muscat Pharmacy and Omran. It will cover art and energy saving competitions in schools across the nation, while various companies and institutions will participate by switching off non-essential lighting and distributing material to their mailing lists. There will also be an advertising campaign.

Commenting on Earth Hour 2012 in Oman, ESO Executive Director Lamees Daar said: "The Environment Society of Oman is delighted to be championing Earth Hour for the second year in Oman and build on the tremendous response we received across the Sultanate last year.

"During Earth Hour itself we are encouraging individuals, families, businesses and the Government to switch off what they can for the hour to save electricity. Already a number of corporate organisations have pledged their commitment to the cause and we have managed to secure a number of sponsors to help promote the campaign.

"But for ESO Earth Hour is just the beginning. It is a symbol about how by working together we can create a brighter future here in Oman and we want people across the country to see how they can make simple changes to their everyday conduct to save power and electricity."

Earth Hour was first launched in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million residents turned off non essential lights and now driven by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), the event has been taken up by countries all over the world.

The global objective of the campaign is to work towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent to reduce the temperature of the earth by 2 degrees Celsius to help ensure the Earth remains habitable for humans and other species.

"In a campaign like this every little step helps. Simply turning the lights off in rooms you are not in, keeping your air conditioning thermostat at 23, switching off electrical appliances at the wall when not in use for example can make a huge difference if everyone does this every day.

"Reducing water consumption by not letting taps run, checking leaking taps and pipes will also have a big impact on water and electricity consumption. Most of our water comes from desalination plants that require huge amounts of electricity to produce treated water - so reducing our water use can indirectly save electricity too," says ESO General Manager Bassma Rasasi.

ESO argues that by adopting smart and simple to implement conservation measures individuals and families can lower their own domestic bills while large organisations can see marked reductions in their operational business costs - while helping the environment at the same time.

For more information about Earth Hour in Oman log on to www.eso.org.om and internationally to www.earthhour.org.

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Kevin Hasler/Ahmed Al Waily
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