Saudi Arabia Launches ‘Culture and Green Future’ Initiative

Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
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Saudi Arabia Launches ‘Culture and Green Future’ Initiative

Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)
Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan shakes hands with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO)

Saudi Arabia has launched the "Culture & Green Future" initiative, which aims to enhance the role of culture and raise awareness of the centrality of culture in comprehensive and sustainable development and address its various challenges.

The initiative was launched by Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture and Chairman of the National Committee for Education, Culture and Science, in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), on the sidelines of the activities of the 23rd session of the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers.

The conference was hosted on Wednesday by the Culture Ministry in cooperation with ALECSO in Riyadh, in the presence of ministers and officials from 20 Arab countries as well as the Arab League, and representatives of international and regional organizations.

"The issue of culture and the green future comes in line with the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Hence the Kingdom supports collective efforts to enhance knowledge, skills, and practices related to making the cultural sector more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” the Culture Minister said in a speech at the conference.

The role of culture in shaping a green future and implementing the commitments of Arab countries to harness culture for sustainable development will be focused through the launch of the "Culture and Sustainability Report in the Arab World", which will include five themes, including culture and sustainable development, knowledge transfer and exchange of expertise to create the green future, climate change, and local cultural policies, and “sustainable and creative cities and cultural solutions to ensure sustainability.”

The Culture Ministry also signed two separate agreements with ALECSO and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO).



Latest Tests Show Seine Water Quality Was Substandard When Paris Mayor Took a Dip

 Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Latest Tests Show Seine Water Quality Was Substandard When Paris Mayor Took a Dip

 Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Tests results released Friday showed the water quality in the River Seine was slightly below the standards needed to authorize swimming — just as the Paris Olympics start.

Heavy rain during the opening ceremony revived concerns over whether the long-polluted waterway will be clean enough to host swimming competitions, since water quality is deeply linked with the weather in the French capital.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a highly publicized dip last week in a bid to ease fears. The Seine will be used for marathon swimming and triathlon.

Daily water quality tests measure levels of fecal bacteria known as E. coli.

Tests by monitoring group Eau de Paris show that at the Bras Marie, E. coli levels were then above the safe limit of 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters determined by European rules on June 17, when the mayor took a dip.

The site reached a value of 985 on the day the mayor swam with Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet and the top government official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, joined her, along with swimmers from local swimming clubs.

At two other measuring points further downstream, the results were below the threshold.

The statement by Paris City Hall and the prefecture of the Paris region noted that water quality last week was in line with European rules six days out of seven on the site which is to host the Olympic swimming competitions.

It noted that "the flow of the Seine is highly unstable due to regular rainfall episodes and remains more than twice the usual flow in summer," explaining fluctuating test results.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century. Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.