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| QATAR SCRIPT MAY 14TH
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| COMM Qatar’s oil and gas revenues fuelled one of the most rapid population explosions in history, and made its people the richest in the world.
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| COMM But this has had consequences for Qatar’s environment and people.
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| HAMMOND | SYNC Qatari’s themselves are at a loss about what is happening in their country. This is a big question they are asking: where are we going? |
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| COMM
Its wildlife is disappearing, its fish stocks rapidly declining.
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| JASSIM | SYNC Some species have become extinct. Not just one or two. Why?
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| COM
The over-use of resources and waste made this country vulnerable.
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| IBRAHIM | The water reserves we have right now are enough for three and a half days.
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| Over-consumption is also causing a national health crisis. |
| ZAM ZAM | SYNC Even young people in their twenties are getting strokes…
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| Can Qatar’s government and its people reverse the negative consequences of economic success? |
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| 1 AL JUMAIL
| COMM On the North-East coast of Qatar lie the ruins of Al Jumail, once a thriving fishing village.
It was abandoned in the 1970s when the villagers and local farmers drained all their water sources dry.
It’s a reminder of how inhospitable Qatar’s environment can be.
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| 2 VILLAGGIO | COMM But now inside the vast air-conditioned shopping malls of Doha, Qatar’s capital, there is water in abundance.
Here luxury goods from around the world are available to a population that has seen one of the most rapid economic booms in history.
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| 3 NOOR AL THANI
| One section of society call this era the cement civilisation or the construction culture. The last fifteen twenty years in Qatar there was an emphasis on building and infrastructure. We lost our connection to nature and the environment, to where we are living, our origins.
Some in our society have even forgotten that we live on a peninsula, their connection with water and pure natural air have decreased.
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| 4 Exterior Villaggio – young blades in pick-up hove into and out of shot, fags , laughter etc. | Upsound from car. |
| 5 Shots of the Spiney-Lizard…the Dhab | This animal is never seen in Qatar’s shopping malls. The Dhab, or Egyptian Mastiguire (Uromastyx Aegiptia) is not familiar to Qatar’s younger generation. But it was well-known to their grandparents, who traditionally cooked it for dinner.
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| 6 MJ DRIVING | COMM Mohamed Al Jaidah learnt how to hunt Dhab from his father and grandfather, in the days before Qatar’s miracle growth.
Now he wants to pass this Qatari tradition on to his son Youssef.
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| 7 MJ | Sync We are here today in the area where we study the gathering of the dhab. Alhamdullillah this is our first day, and we have seen two or three. This is very good sign because they are starting to come out.
This area is now starting to become inhabited … and this will have an effect on… Ah, there are two…
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| Car chase. |
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| Dhab chase |
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| 8 ACTUALITY | Big, full of fat. Male, let us record.
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Mohammed and Yousef study the dhab to help ensure its survival in Qatar’s rapidly changing environment.
This means injecting a small chip so that it can be detected and identified.
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| 10 MOHAMED | ACTUALITY In the past this animal was considered a high source of protein. The Bedouin used to depend fully on this animal as a main source of food for protein.
We try to encourage youth to understand appreciate how the people used to live in the past and still exists until now.
Now we took all the measurements and we will return him back to his natural environment.
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| 14 MOHAMED AL JAIDAH Final C.C3353201
| SYNC In the past this desert huge variety in wildlife for example in Qatar there was the desert, ostriches, the desert leopard and the sand cat, but because of the discovery of oil and huge migration, and the developments, all of this affects nature and has made the situation much worse, the lack of water and reduction in rainfall, desertification, food sources decreased for these animals.’
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| 15 ARCHIVE – cut to
| COMMENTARY
As Qatar’s wildlife declined, its human population experienced one of the most extraordinary demographic changes in human history.
Seventy years ago Qatar’s desert lands and coastal waters barely supported 20,000 people.
The population has now increased 90 times, to over 2 million.
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| 16 ANDREW HAMMOND 1 1095 DEVELOPMENT IS AT A VERY FAST PACE AND THEY WANT TO | SYNC ‘’Development is at a very fast pace in Qatar and they want tomorrow to come today – this is the rulers, the policy of the rulers. What is odd is that the Qataris themselves are at a loss of what is happening in their country. This is the main question for them, they ask where are we going? As a Qatari I would ask myself why all these foreigners?’’
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| 17
Figures from the Ministry of Statistics, Qatar, figures vary, some say 1 to 10. BBC online.
| COMMENTARY
Qataris are now a small minority in their own country, outnumbered at least 7 to 1 by foreigners.
A fast-growing population has put pressure on Qatar’s infrastructure and limited natural resources. |
| 18 JONATHAN SMITH
| SYNC There are no new water sources, there are no new land resources that have come into play … If you were to examine it today with really honest eyes, what you would see is a system that was designed to support a nation of about 300,000 / 350,000 people, that is struggling to support the growth that we have achieved as an economy and as a nation.
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| 19 NEW COMM
| COMM
The local food supply is now a major concern for Qatar.
Farmers drained over 90% of the country’s aquifers and now supply less than a tenth of the country’s food.
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| 20 Fishing dhows and Jassim |
A growing/burgeoning population is putting pressure on its traditional source of protein: fish.
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| 22 | Jassim Al Langawi owns 17 fishing dhows. |
| 23 Jassim actuality | One, of there, two, three….. and the fourth, and the other back side. |
| 24 |
He remembers the days before Qatar’s economic and population boom. |
| 25 JASSIM TALKS ABOUT HIS YOUTH | SYNC I have always been in this business of catching fish and I love it. I started fishing since maybe 40 years ago. |
| 26 Christine’s note. This sentence was missing a verb. | COMMENTARY He is in a good position to compare past hauls with present catches, and understands the consequences of over - fishing and coastal development. |
| 27 BEST BIT OF JASSIM
– = صافي صنيفي = Streaked Spinefoot
برطام= Stripped grouper
الغين= Parrot Fish
| SYNC There are much less fish. Before they were everywhere, but not anymore, because there are more fishermen and maybe also the sea pollution. There are some species that disappeared, and not one or two but 5 or 6. They are much less now, and when we say they are gone we mean extinct. The Bartam has vanished and we don’t come across it anymore. The Safi and Suneifi we don’t see! The gein was so abundant we used to put it back to the sea is gone too. Why?
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| 28 Exterior Fishing ministry
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Qatar’s fisheries department has no figures on the individual species in their waters.
But they are confident that their fishing regulations are preserving fish stocks.
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| 29 MOHAMED AL MOHANNADI – The Fishing Department
| A: Well people always remember the past as an era of plenty! But this is not supported by statistics. I am giving you the numbers.
The amount of fish caught is between 13 to 15 thousand tons annually. This amount is stable, and we issued regulations to ensure that this amount is not exceeded.
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| 30 SWIRLING FISH FROM WILD ARABIA OR MORE SHOTS FROM AL WAQRA AND JASSIM’S DHOWS | COMM Qatar and other Gulf states are now taking action to count and preserve their fish stocks. But some Scientists who studied the Gulf in the last three decades assert that catastrophic damage has already occurred. |
| 31 PROF SHEPPARD RESPONSE TO AL MOHANNADI
| SYNC The fishing intensity might be going up but they are not catching much more. We have the figures to show that only about a fifth of the catch per square kilometre is being landed now, compared to only about 20 – 30 years ago.
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| 32 A SHOTS OF JASSIM ON THE DHOW | Jassim Al Langawi also witnessed another casualty of Qatar’s development: the destruction of its coral reefs. |
| 33 Jasim Al Langawi | ‘’There have been lots of changes because of the all the construction, Qatar is a peninsula and coral is very close to the land, and this new building projects have affected the sea, and if it took from the sea where will the fish go?’’
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| 34 Source: Prof Shepperd and the diver Walid Hamawi, area is Msei’id.
| COMM These photographs of the seabed near one of Qatar’s refineries reveal little sign of life.
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| 35 PROF CHARLES SHEPPERD | SYNC In Qatar I have dived on reefs for one hour at a time taken there by students from the university of Qatar, and in two hours we saw not one, not one live coral or not one fish on what were before thriving reefs.
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| 36 C COMM
Source: Ministry of Environment. | COMM The Qatari authorities say that high sea temperatures in the 1990s caused this depletion. But Professor Shepperd also blames siltation, which occurs when coastal building projects deposit large amounts of sand into the sea. |
| 37 PROF CHARLES SHEPPARD
| SYNC ‘’Controls were not really good enough to stop siltation blanketing the reefs ; if you smother a coral reef, you kill it. I think the intensity of pressures which are increasing have become such that all the biological indicators of the gulf seem to be going downhill. If that is continued for too long you are going to end up with a sea that is really largely dead. |
| 38 BEACH-CLEAR-UP
Source: Ministry of the Environment.
| Government regulations now require that new coastal developments replace damaged coral and marine life. Qatar’s oil and gas companies have to take initiatives to protect the environment, such as this beach clearing exercise to protect a sea-turtle nesting site. |
| 39 SHOTS OF PICTURES OF HAMAD AND TAMIM AL THANI WITH CEMENT MIXERS PASSING UNDERNEATH | COMMENTARY
The new Emir and his administration now have a major environmentally-conscious development programme. |
| 40 JONATHAN SMITH
ELI TO CHECK 6 Phds
| SYNC I think that really one of the things really what is defining Qatar today is that it is not only a nation that is not only young from a standpoint of ‘a relatively new constitution……..relatively new institutions and a burgeoning economy, we’re surrounded by young people how have studied at some of the finest universities in the world ….. in fact in the new government 6 out of 9 members of the ruling cabinet hold PhDs. …. |
| 41
PICTURES OF THE NEW EMIR AND HIS DAD BEING GREETED.
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Qatar is a young nation, but it maintains a traditional style of government.
It is an absolute monarchy with no formal checks and balances, run on a system of government known as the ‘ruling bargain’.
Citizens pay no taxes, get free education, health care and are guaranteed employment.
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| 42 ZAHRA BABAR | So political rights as such you could say are bargained away, I mean political rights, you don’t participate you don’t have a say, you don’t vote, but that’s alright you don’t care, as long as you have a really good standard of living, as long as you have a great job, and access to good education and those sorts of things, so that’s where the bargain comes in.
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| 43
| COMMENTARY
The ruling bargain has served Qatar well.
Qatar’s people are now the richest on earth.
They earn on average $100,000 per person per year.
But now they are suffering the consequences of their own success: the negative impact of over-consumption.
This includes their health.
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| 44 ZAHRA BABAR | SYNC It’s a huge challenge…..food consumption and eating habits changed drastically, the diets 20, 25 years ago are nothing like what they are today, the sudden influx of globalised brands, of most unhealthy fast-food franchises.
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| 45 Weight Heart attack figures
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Government figures reveal that over 70% of Qatar’s population are now clinically overweight, more than in the United States.
Their high carbohydrate diet and sedentary lifestyles have led to high rates of heart disease and diabetes.
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| 46 Kids playing basket ball at the Aspire Centre |
The government, backed by businesses, now encourages young people to improve their health and lifestyles.
This is the finals day for the Schools Olympic Programme.
Qatar’s Hamad Medical Corporation is screening people for high blood-pressure, obesity and diabetes.
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| 47 ZAM ZAM AL HADDAD | SYNC ‘In the past our mothers and grandfathers didn’t have diabetes like we do now. Their life was simpler and more active. Unlike now as we have servants and cars, which provide more comfort. So we don’, you don’t use energy as we did in the past.
As a nurse in Intensive care I have noticed notable increase Even the age of patients is going down. In past it was the over 60s but in the last 2 or 3 years, its people in there 40s and 20s, with heart attacks and strokes.’
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| 48 ASPIRE PICS | COMMENTARY
Type 2 diabetes requires a lifetime of treatment and a restricted lifestyle. It also increases the risk of heart disease and blindness.
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| 49 DR AL LAHHAM | SYNC Some patients are just discovering they have diabetes, just now in the last two or three hours we’ve been screening.
About three people found out that they have diabetes, and high levels.
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| COM 50
Source: Action for Diabetes, semi-official govt body.
| COMM
In Qatar one in six people now have diabetes.
This is twice the rate of the United States, where the problem is regarded as an epidemic.
Dr Lahham reviews each person’s test results.
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| 51 ACTUALITY
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Lahham: All the figures are satisfying,
Patient Thank God.
Al Lahham You have the health of a 20 year-old !
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| 52 | COMMENTARY The next man is not so lucky…
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| 53 DR AL LAHHAM
| Lahham and Patient 4
You’ve got diabetes. You’ve got diabetes. If you go to a hospital now they will admit you.
Patient: Maybe it’s because I had breakfast already?
Lahham: even if you had breakfast, it would not have reached this level. You wouldn’t have eaten 75 grams of sugar.
Your figures are very high, you must get checked.
Patient: For Diabetes?
Lahham Yes.
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| 54 DR AL LAHHAM | SYNC
People find it very hard to accept it when you tell them they have diabetes ... This is a well-known phase which is denial. They refuse to believe they have this disease, but they will accept it gradually.
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| 55 | COMM
Diabetes is just one of the consequences of over-consumption.
The government is trying to change people’s lifestyles. But this is going to be a long-term commitment.
Also on the government agenda are the over-consumption of energy and water.
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| 56 Source: Kahramaa and Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) for 2013-2014. As for Qatar’s inter-ministerial Permanent Population Committee, it puts the figure at 675 litres in 2011. Ibrahim Al Mohannadi of Kharamaa cited this figure too in an interview to the Peninsula newspaper.
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Qatar’s residents consume over 600 litres a day, more than any other nation in the world – and this in a country with no water of its own.
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| 57
| COMM It wasn’t always like this. Qataris of Mohamed Al Jaidah’s generation remember a time of self-restraint.
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| 60 MOHAMED AL-JAIDAH
52 seconds in total. | SYNC Our forefathers did not enjoy today’s levels of comfort. They did not have desalinated water and imported goods from all over the world. They depended on nature for everything. Therefore they had to safe water when bathing and performing their ablutions. They performed their ablutions with a single glass/cup of water. Today some run the water from the tap continuously and might use 10 litres instead of one in the past. This is pure waste.’
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| 61 ARCHIVE DESALINATION PLANTS |
Qatar’s aquifers are dry and rain rarely replenishes them. So potable water is produced by extracting salt from sea water.
Desalination is very expensive and requires a lot of energy that adds to global warming.
It can also be harmful to coastal marine life especially in the warm and salty waters of the Gulf.
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| 62 PROF SHEPPARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF DESALINATION DW013702 | SYNC A ‘’desal’’ plant will discharge large volumes of hot and salty water. The Gulf is already naturally at the extreme upper tolerance of warmth and heat as far as the marine life is concerned. It doesn’t need much more to knock it over the edge and kill it. The same applies to the salinity; it s highly salty and stress to the marine life a little more can kill it and it does.
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| 63 COMM Use turtle shots from Khaled footage or wild Arabia. |
In spring and summer turtles return to Qatar’s shallow shores to nest, as they have done for millions of years.
But some of their nesting beaches are uncomfortably close to the hot and salty effluent from Qatar’s desalination plants.
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| 64
Source: Qatar’s National Food and Security Programme.
| And there’s another problem: any interruption of the desalination process would provoke a national crisis.
Ibrahim Al Sadah is only too aware of the problem.
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| 65 IBRAHIM AL SADAH, of Kahramaa– street interview 2 clip 6
| SYNC At the moment we have enough water stored for three and a half days, if God forbid there is any emergency - If the supply from the main desalination plant is interrupted. For normal usage there will be enough for three and a half days but with good planning it could last one or two weeks.
This is a very sensitive and critical issue.
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| 66 | COMMENTARY
Kahramaa, Qatar’s Electricity and water corporation, has begun a massive building programme.
It is encircling Doha with the largest man-made reservoirs in the world.
But it is also trying to reduce excessive levels of consumption.
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| 67
| One way to reduce demand for something is to increase its price.
But this is not an option for Kahramaa.
The government lets Qataris have their water and electricity for free.
Even foreign residents are subsidised by 60%.
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| 68 | SYNC CHECK.
Water and electricity are subsidised by the state. It could be one of the reasons for waste and overconsumption of electricity and water.
But when it comes to the State’s policy about raising tariffs there have been debates for years and it is not a new thing. And there were proposals sent but until now there has not been a decision to force Qataris to pay.
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| 70 | Upsound Hand in hand let’s save together.
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| 69 MUSICAL | COMM This is one of Kahramaa’s alternatives to a price rise.
This Musical for school children is part of Tarsheed, a statewide public awareness campaign.
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| 70 | Upsound.
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| 71 | Sparky the energy conservation boy is here to remind us to switch off the lights.
This is Droppy the water girl with a message to save water. |
| 72
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| 73 ELI CHECKING Boys attack Sparky and Droppy | Sparky’s message may not be getting through to everyone.
Like many public awareness campaigns it could take Tarsheed decades to change behavior.
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| 74 |
To reinforce its Tarsheed campaign, Kahramaa has sent in the enforcers.
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| 75 INSPECTORS |
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| 76 INSPECTORS | These are Tarsheed’s water and electricity inspectors.
Their mission is to detect water and energy abuse on the streets of Doha.
ACTUALITY ‘Look there is a leak. Its broken and there is a leak before the meter.’
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| 77 | COMM It’s against the law to switch on lights outside or to spray water between 7 am and 4pm.
Leaks must be repaired.
Offences will be reported.
Warning letters will be sent.
There are plenty of offenders.
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| 78 | ACTUALITY Rashid….. Let me take the number of this guys electricity box number…
Do you see this light ?
This is a violation of Tarsheed, he’s left the lights on around the house and by the gates…
We give them a warning, once, twice of even three times. Since its one or two lamps, but all the light around the gates are on then this is a definite violation.
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| 79 INSPECTORS Source: Kahramaa | COMMENTARY
Kahramaa says that in the last four years, several thousand persistent offenders have been fined.
But Rashid and his colleagues are severely hampered.
Privacy laws prevent them from entering compounds to check whether hoses or outside lights are on.
Prosecuting citizens for water and electricity offences is problematic.
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| 80 A NOOR AL THANI |
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| 81 INSPECTORS
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Kahramaa say they are reducing water and energy consumption, but have a long way to go to achieve their targets.
Qatar’s water and electricity problems are symptoms of a broader issue relating to the ‘ruling bargain’.
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| 82 Zahra |
This is a legitimate concern I think for Qatari decision makers. This cannot go on endlessly, right? There has to be some point where they are going to start lowering expectations and they will have to start delivering less in terms of the ruling bargain.
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| 83 HAMMOND
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| SYNC ’The state provides water and energy for free, so it becomes more difficult to convince a person to save for something that is free. Why is the government doing this? Its part of the deal that has been established for a long time between the rulers and the people, in this part of the world. The government would like to monopolise decision making.
So if you ask for the citizen to pay more for services or even pay taxes, you are inviting a situation where he might want to participate in sovereign decisions.
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| 84 | COMMENTARY
Qatar’s old ‘ruling bargain’ worked well when growth alone was the objective.
But is more public initiative required to solve the environmental problems of the 21st century?
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| 85 CONCLUDING NOOR AL THANI 00:18-01:16 | Noor: Our society is not active enough, and if society is going to be active it must be from the bottom upwards. It will be better if the government and its agencies give the individual a chance to participate. I don’t want to say that I am worried that the worst might happen but if we want the best we must move fast to save our environment. |
| 86 AL JUMAIL |
When the fishermen and farmers abandoned Al Jumail more than four decades ago, Qatar was a very different place.
But the fishing village stands as a reminder of the harshness of Qatar’s desert landscape and the consequences of over-consumption.
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