Mixing up of rainwater into sewage water caused a heavy load on the sewage network in Dubai and led to wastewater discharge in an area during the recent rains, Dubai Municipality said on Sunday.

Talib Julfar, assistant director general of Dubai Municipality for Environment and Public Health Services Sector, who also leads the Ghaith Dubai Team that supervises the storm water, said some people opened the covers of sewage networks and let the storm water in, thinking that it was a rainwater drainage network.

He said this “increased the burden on the network by up to 50 per cent of the estimated load and caused difficulty to network to absorb the increase, which was not in our calculations.”

One person in an area in Dubai was caught opening the sewerage network and draining rainwater, causing the wastewater discharge in the area, he said in a press release.

“However, the problem was dealt with quickly and promptly,” said Julfar.

The official said the municipality is considering giving treated sewage water to developers of gated communities for free during rainy days to reduce the load on the treatment plant.

He said a reason for the accumulation of rain water in Dubai is that the developers stop receiving the treated water from the treatment plant when the free rainwater they receive is sufficient to meet their needs.

“Therefore, we are studying the possibility of providing all developers water without charge during the rainy season and urge developers to use the treated water until the load on the treatment plant is reduced. As the stations do not have storage tanks to store treated water, it is disposed in the sea or used on the streets or parks or major projects implemented by developers,” he said.

Julfar said the municipality had succeeded in containing fully the rain water that accumulated in the emirate during the weekend and has cleared all roads and streets between Dubai and other emirates and the internal roads.

The Ghaith Dubai team mobilised more than 3,000 people and used 110 tankers [from the municipality and private contractors] in cooperation with the Roads and Transport Authority to facilitate the cleaning work. “All the [major] streets have been cleared of accumulated water and the sand, debris and residues washed away with rain have also been removed from the roads,” said Julfar.

He said the Dubai Horse Race arena was also cleaned up to facilitate the prestigious Dubai World Cup

source : gulfnews