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Nigerian Siamese Twins Successfully Separated in Saudi Arabia

Al-Rabeeah thanked the medical team that performed the surgery for their efforts. SPA
Al-Rabeeah thanked the medical team that performed the surgery for their efforts. SPA
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Nigerian Siamese Twins Successfully Separated in Saudi Arabia

Al-Rabeeah thanked the medical team that performed the surgery for their efforts. SPA
Al-Rabeeah thanked the medical team that performed the surgery for their efforts. SPA

A specialized surgical team in Saudi Arabia separated the Nigerian Siamese twins, Hassana and Hasina, who were attached at the lower chest and abdomen and shared the liver, bile ducts, and intestines, after a complex surgery that lasted over 14 hours and was conducted in eight phases, with the participation of a 36-member team of surgeons and 85 members of the multidisciplinary medical team.
Advisor at the Royal Court, Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), and head of the medical and surgical team in the separation of Siamese twins, Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, explained that the operation comes under the generous directives of the Saudi leadership, becoming the 56th of the Saudi program for the separation of conjoined twins.
He added that during the past 33 years, the program was able to operate on 130 Siamese twins from 23 friendly countries, stressing the Kingdom's pioneering role in humanitarian work in general and the medical profession in particular.
Al-Rabeeah thanked the medical team that performed the surgery for their efforts, stressing that the achievement reflects the wise leadership's keenness to help people wherever they are. He added that it also reflects Saudi medical excellence, which aligns with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 to develop the health sector in the Kingdom and advance its quality and efficiency.
He extended, in his name and on behalf of his fellow members of the medical team, the appreciation and gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the generous support received by the Saudi program for the separation of conjoined twins.

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Rubbish Roads: Nepal Explores Paving with Plastic

This photograph taken on December 26, 2024 shows a worker holding shredded recyclable plastic waste at the Green Road Waste Management processing facility in Pokhara. Cars speeding along a smooth, black-colored street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction. (AFP)
This photograph taken on December 26, 2024 shows a worker holding shredded recyclable plastic waste at the Green Road Waste Management processing facility in Pokhara. Cars speeding along a smooth, black-colored street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction. (AFP)
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Rubbish Roads: Nepal Explores Paving with Plastic

This photograph taken on December 26, 2024 shows a worker holding shredded recyclable plastic waste at the Green Road Waste Management processing facility in Pokhara. Cars speeding along a smooth, black-colored street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction. (AFP)
This photograph taken on December 26, 2024 shows a worker holding shredded recyclable plastic waste at the Green Road Waste Management processing facility in Pokhara. Cars speeding along a smooth, black-colored street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction. (AFP)

Cars speeding along a smooth, black-colored street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction.

Nepal's urban areas generate about 5,000 tons of solid waste per day, according to the World Bank, of which 13 percent is plastic waste dumped in landfills.

While high-value plastics, like bottles, are absorbed by the recycling industry, low-value plastics -- such as multi-layered packaging -- pose a significant challenge because they don't fit into a single recycling category.

For a group of young Nepali entrepreneurs, the vast accumulation of this low-value plastic waste presented an opportunity.

"A plastic road can use even low-value plastics," said Bimal Bastola, founder of Green Road Waste Management, the organization leading the initiative in Nepal.

"We saw scope for such plastics to be utilized as a raw material, partially substituting bitumen in road construction."

Discarded packages of noodles, biscuits and other snacks move along a conveyor belt at their trash-sorting center.

The divided plastic is then put into machines to be shredded into fine pieces.

Since the early 2000s, neighboring India has been leading the world in building a network of plastic roads, even making the usage of plastic waste mandatory in roads near large cities in 2015.

A growing number of countries are experimenting with it, including nearby Bhutan and Bangladesh.

In traditional road construction, bitumen is the binding material, a tarry oil product mixed directly with hot aggregates before paving a road.

The plastic road method, however, first coats the aggregates with shredded plastic before adding bitumen.

"This method reduces the need for fresh raw materials, lowers costs, prevents water infiltration and increases road lifespan," Bastola said.

Studies show that roads paved with plastic waste can be twice as durable as normal roads.

- 'Scale up' -

Globally, only nine percent of plastic waste is recycled, while 19 percent is incinerated, and nearly half ends up in controlled landfills, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Left unchecked, the production of synthetic polymers -- the building blocks of plastics -- is expected to reach about 1.2 billion tons annually by 2060.

The plastic that accumulates in the environment is non-biodegradable, takes hundreds of years to decompose and breaks down into tiny microscopic particles.

And while Nepal banned single-use plastic bags thinner than 40 microns, that ban is not strictly implemented.

For Bastola, increasing plastic road construction is key to making the recycling of low-value plastics economically viable.

His organization says about two tons of shredded plastic is used to build a kilometer of road.

So far, the organization has completed about 10 projects totaling a little over 1.5 kilometers (one mile).

"It is happening at a small scale, we need to scale up," Bastola said. "We have to make government-level projects and we are trying to work closely with the department of roads."

A pilot project is planned this year in the capital Kathmandu at a major intersection.

"Nepal is keen on testing this technology through pilot projects," said Arjun Nepal, an engineer with the Kathmandu road department.

"But to take it forward, we need government-led standards to ensure quality."

The World Bank says life cycle analyses of plastic roads are limited and it is still not clear what environmental impacts -- if any -- recycled plastics may have when used in road construction.

"While initial anecdotes and pilot studies show promise, further research is needed to measure emissions during production, evaluate microplastic release over time and determine how these roads behave once they are decommissioned," said Valerie Hickey, global director of the World Bank's climate change group.

Despite these concerns, environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar said that plastic roads present an important opportunity for Nepal.

"It is a low-hanging fruit to address two problems simultaneously -- the need for strong roads and the management of plastic waste -- for a developing country like Nepal," he said.