Area In Kuwait Research Articles

Biological treatment of mixed industrial and sanitary wastewaters

The Enlarged Shuaiba Industrial Area of Kuwait contains the largest concentration of industries in Kuwait. The wastewaters from this area are, in the main, discharged into the Arabian Gulf after some pretreatment. In an effort to alleviate the pollution of the Gulf, laboratory-scale biological treatability studies were undertaken. A composite industrial wastewater representing the effluents from oil refineries and petrochemical plants, and domestic wastewater were treated by activated sludge and “Captor” reactor systems. Effective nitrification was observed in both systems. At the scale studied (5 1), however, the activated sludge system was found to be superior in performance. The poorer performance of the “Captor” system can probably be attributed to an accumulation of oil that inhibited the activity of the microorganisms within the sponges.

Plankton of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf

Though presenting some similarities, the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf differ much in their configuration, hydrography and plankton populations. Both the recruitment of pelagic organisms into the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden and their subsequent northward diffusion within the Red Sea basin, and the fluctuations in biomass and primary productivity are governed by the circulation pattern, which is itself dependent on the periodical Monsoon wind systems. The species diversity of Red Sea plankton is reduced relative to the Indian Ocean, but much higher than that of the Arabian Gulf. An indigenous assemblage of dinoflagellates, tintinnids, copepods and chaetognath species, however, appears to be well adapted to the conditions of this sea. Their wide distributions do not depend on the seasonal inflow. As a rule both the primary productivity and the zooplankton biomass are higher during the NE monsoon. The southern Red Sea is more productive than the northern with the two zones being separated by a low-productivity discontinuity zone at about 20° to 25°N, which is the zone of wind convergence in summer. More than 95% of the zooplankton biomass occurs in the upper 1000m and several endemic species have been reported. The Arabian Gulf is a vast, relatively shallow lagoon connected to the Gulf of Oman through the narrow strait of Hormuz. Circulation is anti-clockwise. Along the Iranian coast salinity rises from 36.6% near the strait to 40.6% in the NE Gulf and even higher along the Arabian coast. The Indian Ocean bathypelagic species as well as the dinoflagellate “Schattenarten” are completely missing from the Gulf. The species diversity is much poorer than that of either the Gulf of Oman or the Red Sea. An indigenous community, however, has developed which at first sight appears to be uniformly distributed especially along the Iranian coast, which is dominated by copepods and myodocopid ostracods. Some horizontal zonation is observable. Both nutrient and biomass concentrations are higher in mid-basin than in coastal waters. The Shatt-el-Arab to Kuwait area where estuarine components are not uncommon, and cladocerans replace ostracods in importance, is more productive and more diversified than the Trucial coast.

Aeolian sedimentation in the north-western part of the Arabian Gulf

Dust storms are common in the northern Arabian Gulf region. They move mainly in a south-easterly direction. The State of Kuwait, near the site of deposition of the sediments, is continuously subjected to considerable amounts of dust. Dust fallout samples were collected on a bi-weekly basis from locations along the coastal area of Kuwait during the period April 1979 to March 1980. They were analysed for grain size distribution. The mean monthly maxima and minima of dust fallout were recorded in July 1979 (1002·7 tonnes/km2 and November 1979 (9·8 tonnes/km2), respectively. It was found that the dust fallout of Kuwait is generally sandy silt with an average composition of 32 per cent sand, 62 per cent silt and 6 per cent clay. Particles range in size between 0·125 mm and 0·015 mm, constitute 80 per cent of the average dust fallout. The contribution of dust to sediment of the north-western part of the Arabian Gulf is found to be 1 mm/year, assuming a uniform thickness of deposition throughout the coastal area of Kuwait.

A decentralised microcomputer based system for remote data collection

A decentralised data acquisition system for remote data collection is presented. The system has been implemented in the collection of environment data for subsequent analysis of thermal pollution along the coastline of a large industrial area in Kuwait. The main features of the system are its extensive use of microcomputers in remote data collection and storage and the interrogation of these microcomputers by a minicomputer based station for permanent storage and processing. Normal system operation is “near” real time in that the data collected are available for analysis and processing after a relatively short period of time. The system offered a practical approach to hydrographic monitoring in deep waters and under difficult environmental conditions. Results on the system performance are presented.

Effects of Brackish Water Utilization by Broilers and Growing Pullets on Performance

Brackish water from two wells in the Al-Shaggaya area of Kuwait and soft water from Kuwait City were utilized in two experiments to investigate the effects of brackish water on the performance of broilers and growing replacement pullets.Results obtained indicated that brackish water containing up to 3000 ppm of dissolved solids did not adversely affect the overall performance of broilers at either 4 or 6 weeks of age nor the performance of growing pullets from 12 to 20 weeks of age. Differences in body weight gains, feed consumption, water intake and ratio of water consumption to feed intake were not statistically significant. Examination of the internal organs of slaughtered birds at the end of the experiments did not reveal any abnormalities. Also, examination of the livers for fat accumulations and blood sera for concentrations of major cations and anions did not reveal any significant differences between treatments.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kuwait.

During a study of cutaneous leishmaniasis, 33 patients from different districts in Kuwait were interviewed. Their lesions were examined clinically and microscopically. Most patients had multiple lesions (up to 60 per person), mainly distributed on the upper and lower limbs, and less frequently on the face, neck and trunk. Both sexes and all ages were affected. The incidence of the disease was recorded in most inhabited areas in Kuwait. The peak of incidence occurred in February.The data showed that cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in Kuwait. This is attributed to several factors including the central location of Kuwait in an area of the Middle East where cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic (Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia), the rapid increase in economic activities, the number of travellers and immigrants, and the change in ecological conditions and nature of the habitat for the sandfly vectors following the rapid urbanization of certain districts.