HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), has today inaugurated the 7th Annual Best Practices Conference in Quality, Health, Safety and Environment conference, which is organised by DEWA. A number of international experts and specialists discussed the latest developments and best practices in these areas. The conference, held at the InterContinental hotel, Dubai Festival City, was attended by a number of officials, and DEWA partners and staff. The conference was attended by HE Saif Al Falasi, CEO of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), HE Ahmed Buti Al Muhairbi, Secretary General of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, Executive Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents at DEWA. A large number of partners, representatives of public and private organisations, and the media attended the conference.

The first session was a presentation by Richard Hawk, President of Richard Hawk Inc. and a global speaker in safety. He commended Dubai and described it as one of the most amazing places he has ever visited. He talked about the seven ways to make safety fun, and the role of leaders in establishing a culture of safety in their organisations.

In his opening speech, Al Tayer welcomed the participants and emphasised that continuous training and keeping updated with the latest developments that support DEWAs strategy to achieve the highest standards in quality, health, safety, and the environment. He noted that the conference underlines DEWAs commitment to developing its staff, and work with its partners to achieve the highest levels of excellence and quality in their businesses to make all stakeholders happier, and realise the vision of the wise leadership.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai once noted that the main reason behind the high performance of the UAE government is that, for many years, the leadership has been managing government organisations like private companies to compete with the private sector, working with the same mentality and adopting their best practices. Although DEWA has achieved outstanding results that surpass the best international companies in efficiency, reliability, health, safety, the environment, and other criteria, we are guided by the vision of His Highness. We do not rest on our laurels, but rely on continuous education and ongoing training. We organise conferences and workshops to learn about the latest theories and developments, and exchange the best practices related to the different areas of our business. This supports our vision to become a sustainable innovative world-class utility. We do this within an integrated administrative and operational strategy that ensures world-class standards in delivering our services according to the highest standards of availability, reliability and efficiency to meet the expectations of our customers, ensure the safety of our staff, and protect both the environment and our natural resources. These efforts are key to achieving the Dubai Plan 2021 for the government of Dubai to be a pioneering and excellent government that is proactive and creative in meeting the needs of individuals and society as a whole, said Al Tayer.

DEWA seeks to achieve the highest standards of quality, health, safety, and the environment in all its internal processes and external activities. This is our responsibility towards our employees and society as a whole. We ensure that all staff, partners, and stakeholders are aware of, and familiar with the latest quality, health, safety, and environmental management systems. DEWA is committed to providing a healthy and safe work environment for all staff, partners, and customers by adopting the best practices, and through continuous improvement and development. This is also done by the optimal investment of its resources and by managing them effectively and efficiently to reach an efficient and effective occupational health and safety management system. We also ensure the successful implementation of these standards to achieve the highest levels of performance quality and ensure that our quality policy is disseminated to all stakeholders to ensure its effectiveness. By implementing the integrated administrative systems policy, we commit ourselves to the effective and successful application of quality, health, safety and environmental management systems in all our activities. These include the production, transmission, and distribution of electricity and water. This also supports our responsibility towards society, which is not limited to providing electricity and water, but ensures the highest standards of safety, security, and sustainability of resources, added Al Tayer.

DEWAs efforts in quality, health, safety, and environment have been proven by winning various global awards. The latest of these awards were the Sword of Honour for health and safety and the Globe of Honour for environment from the British Safety Council. DEWA is one of five organisations worldwide awarded with the Globe of Honour, which DEWA has achieved for the third consecutive year. DEWA has achieved the Sword of Honour for the seventh consecutive year. It is the first government body in the Middle East and North Africa to be awarded with both the Sword of Honour and Globe of Honour, noted Al Tayer.

As I mentioned earlier, we do not rest on our laurels but look forward to the future, hoping to achieve the highest levels of quality, health, safety, and environment. Thats why we are here today to learn about the best practices and approaches within these sectors, and highlight the mechanisms and methods of improving the health and safety systems of workers and ways to enhance them in society. We also look at ways to improving productivity and operational efficiency by creating a safe and healthy working environment. We are here to come up with practical solutions to help address current challenges within these sectors, from an organisational and social perspective to contribute to achieving DEWAs vision which supports the Dubai government strategy, and promotes the sustainable development of Dubai and the UAE, concluded Al Tayer.

This initiative started in 2007 with a group of specialists who shared knowledge on electric-shock protection. Today, it has evolved to this large-scale conference, which is one of the most important events in the region that discusses quality, health, safety and environment. DEWA places great emphasis on quality, health, safety and the environment. This is done by education, training, and applying all regulations as part of the integrated management systems which DEWA adopts to promote the foundations for health and safety, to achieve the happiness of our customers, partners, staff, and protect the environment and our natural resources. DEWAs efforts have been recognised with awards and honours, including the certificate for occupational health and safety management system (OHSAS 18001). These place us in the forefront of global institutions in occupational health and safety, said Dr. Yousef Al Akraf, Executive Vice President of Business Support and Human Resources at DEWA.

The conference addressed international best practices and different work mechanisms in quality, health, safety, and the environment. It also highlighted DEWAs innovative solutions and sustained efforts to provide an ideal work environment for its staff and partners, and contribute to achieving the happiness and satisfaction of its customers and society as a whole.

The first session was a lecture titled Great Leaders Make Safety Fun Using your influence to create a vibrant safety culture, by Richard Hawk, President of Richard Hawk Inc. Then, Ibrahim Al Rawabdeh, Senior Specialist in Excellence at DEWA talked about Sustainable Excellence. The DEWA team members who participated in the Antarctica 2041 Expedition last March shared their experiences in going to Antarctica to highlight the negative impacts of global warming and climate change and raise global awareness on the environmental importance of Antarctica. In the third session, Dr. Bassam Mrayyan, Senior Manager of Environment at DEWA highlighted DEWAs achievements in environment and sustainability. Finally, Dr. Taufik Omeish, Senior Manager of Health, Safety & Environment at DEWA, talked about Achieving Excellence in Health and Safety.

The 7th Annual Best Practices Conference on Quality, Health, Safety and Environment was widely received by DEWAs partners, staff, and stakeholders who thanked DEWA for organising the conference and commended the sincere efforts and the diversity of the topics.