During the third scientific meeting entitled, “Environment and Health”, headed by the Mayor of Makkah Dr. Osama Al-Bar, participants focused their discussion on a number of projects detailed in six working papers. Eng. Ali bin Suleiman Allawi – the Environment and Development Company  for Quality Systems – presented the first paper on “Catering Services for Pilgrims: A Vision for Distinctive Industry”.

In this paper, he stressed the importance of improving the level of catering services provided for pilgrims by employing the latest food technologies to produce affordable meals, in line with the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision to facilitate Hajj and Umrah, to accrue a good return on investment, and to cut on waste of resources. Eng.

Allawi also pointed out the need to provide pilgrims with distinctive, hygienically safe and nutritious food services, noting that catering services have now become a vision towards the future, a thriving industry and an outstanding field of service.

In the same context, Dr. Allawi highlighted the rapid development witnessed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from in-tent and indoor cooking in the past, to restaurants, banquet cuisines, catering facilities and takeaways now, in addition to the various servicing techniques, transforming from bulk catering to automatically packaged and sealed individual meals.

Also, Dr. Abdulrahman Mutlaq Al-Khattabi – the Science, technology and Innovation Unit of the General Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques,  Dr. Turki Muhammad Habeebullah, Dr. Essam Abdel Halim Morsi and Dr. Fathi Fawzi Shaaban – the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research at UQU, Abdullah Dakhilullah Al-Mahmadi – the Operation and Maintenance Department of the Prophet's Mosque Agency, and Consultant of the Operations and Maintenance Department of the Holy Mosque Asem Nashwan found that the operation of the Sprinkler System in the Two Holy Mosques’ open spaces require the installation of sensors to switch them off once the humidity revel reaches 40%, since any increase above that level can lead to heat stress. Moreover, they stressed the need for permanent and continuous cleaning of the sprinklers to enhance spray flow, and its surrounding impact accordingly.

In that regard, they pointed out the impact of sprinklers in reducing external air temperature to an average of 9° C, with almost 25 KW cooling load per each spray fan in the Holy Mosque’s open spaces and more than 50% conditioning efficiency, besides 70% power saving compared to Freon-based air-conditioning systems. “This has helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80%. This environment-friendly system considerably saves the energy used to ensure optimal comfort with temperature.”, they added.

In the same session, from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research, Dr. Abdullah bin Faisal Al-Sebaei participated with a paper titled, “Study of the Organic Waste from the Catering Service in of Pilgrims’ Residence in Makkah and Ways to Decrease Them.”, where he confirmed that an uncontrolled catering has produced the biggest waste at the residences of European and American pilgrims, making 98% of the total organic waste generated by in these residences. He also noted that the leftovers of edible foods, mainly rice, meat and bread, at pilgrims' quarters generally ranged between 49-98% (average 76%) of the total organic waste produced.

In the same vein, Dr. Al-Sebaei  observed that in-house catering services, such as open buffet, set menus and takeaways, vary widely, causing disproportionate waste. “Low-quality food, inadequate catering, unfavorable setting conditions and the extravagant varieties of food items could be the reason behind.”, added Al-Sebaei.

“We have to take into account the health conditions of pilgrims suffering from chronic diseases and provide them with healthy food choices. Almost 76% of organic waste could have been saved, had there been an effective mechanism to make the most of catering services and put an end to squandering.”, Al-Sebaei reiterated.

As well, Dr. Hassan Qassem, Dr. Abdul-Elah Abdul-Ghani Al-Fatni and Dr. Abdul-Rashid Yasin Ayyub from Directorate of Health Affairs in Hail participated in the session with a paper on, “The Study of Health Workers’ Readiness and Acceptance of Risks in Dealing with Possible Cases of MERS in an Emergency Hospital at the Holy Places in Mina during the Hajj Season of 1437A.H. /2016A.D.”. The researchers stressed the readiness of medical service providers at Mina Emergency Hospital, to deal with potential cases of MERS, indicating that despite the workers’ concern about the possibility of infection, they have shown great readiness to take up the risk.

 They called for further intensive efforts to alleviate such concerns by providing training courses and effective means of prevention.

Also, Dr. Omar Bashir Ahmed – the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research, Dr. Yasser Mohammad Hassan –UQU College of Design, Dr. Huda Muhammad – the College of Design and Home Economics at Taif University, presented a paper entitled, “Self-Cleaning of the Ka’ba Clothing Using Titanium Nano Technology”. “Treating the Clothing of Ka’ba with Nano titanium dioxide enables continuous self-cleaning and reduces microbes – both bacteria and fungi, for longer times.”, they added, stressing the need to employ this technology in making the Clothing of Ka’ba.

They noted that such technology works as a catalyst to degrade organic compounds and germs; enabling textiles’ self-cleaning through treating them with a very thin film of nanometric titanium dioxide, which acts as a catalyst for degrading and removing dirt, odor, bacteria, stains and harmful organic matter.

Likewise, Dr. Shawkat Fathi – the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Dr. Bassam Hussein Mashat, Dr. Ibrahim Abdelrehem, and Dr. Osama Attallah – the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research – participated with a paper entitled, “Evaluating of the Experience of Utilizing the Waste of Modern Slaughterhouse (B) of the KSA Project to Benefit from Sacrifice and Hadi Meant”. In that paper, they demonstrated a practical experience to make use of liver as an organ fit for human consumption, and have it as a model to be applied to other organs as well. The research calculated the actual time needed to prepare the accepted for freezing. Finally, the paper highlighted the need to develop a scientific, practical and strategic plan for the sustainable utilization of all organs suitable for human consumption.