UAE’s vision for sustainability inspired long-term expat

Abu Dhabi: After more than three decades in the capital, S.M. Shamsul Alam is retiring and leaving what he calls his ‘other homeland’. But despite starting a new phase in his life, the long-term expat says he will always retain bittersweet memories of the UAE and its passion for environmental sustainability.

The Bangladeshi community in Abu Dhabi too, is sad to see him go. Alam, 62, has long been dedicated towards bettering the school that caters to the community, the Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bangladeshi Islamia School, and has played a supportive role towards its sustainability efforts.

“With his high level of professionalism, integrity and unwavering commitment, he contributed a lot to the day-to-day running of the school,” said Mohammad Imran, Bangladeshi Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News.

Imran added that while the community will miss his presence, the Embassy wishes him every success in his future endeavours.

Alam first arrived in the UAE in 1982, and soon took up a job as an environmental processes supervisor with a public entity. His wife and young daughters followed soon after.

“I was both surprised and inspired by Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s passion towards greening the desert, and even more encouraged when I became familiar with the methods employed to reuse wastewater for irrigation purposes,” he told Gulf News.

So he went on to work with a wastewater treatment plant and develop his expertise in the subject.

In time, Alam also began to engage with Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bangladeshi Islamia School, a Bangladeshi Embassy-run institution that currently enrols about 700 pupils. Having served as the school board’s vice-chairman and then its general secretary, Alam also played an instrumental role in making the school greener and more sustainable.

One of its major projects involved the use of wastewater from the school mosque’s taps to irrigate a garden.

“We wanted to have grass in our garden without increasing water consumption. Alam was instrumental in setting up the tanks to collect the greywater and channel it towards the field,” said Anita Saul, English teacher at the school and its environmental coordinator.

The school has been repeatedly recognised for its focus towards running as a green and eco-friendly organisation by the emirate of Abu Dhabi’s environment sector regulator, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.

Saul added that Alam would always lend a listening ear to the school’s annual Eco Club action plans, and contribute in any way he could towards realising them.

“We will miss his willingness to help the school become one of the most sustainable institutions in Abu Dhabi,” she said.

Even though he is leaving Abu Dhabi behind, Alam’s passion towards education shows no signs of waning.

“I will be returning to Naogaon district, where I hail from. There, in our village, I hope to work closely with a college that enrols more than 400 pupils. Most importantly, 70 per cent of the pupils are girls, and because the nearest town is 10 kilometres away, many of them were unable to study beyond Grade 10 until the college was established in 2000,” he said.