Unlike Dubai.
Here's a nice pic from the Gulf News that shows what happens when you pour raw sewage into a city's storm drain system. Yum.
Dubai Offshore Sailing Club on Friday, showing the ongoing pollution caused by raw sewage dumped into storm drains. Source: Gulf News
The reason for the illegal dumping is that Dubai is still using the septic tank poop-truck system (as is Oman) in their cities. The resultant tidal wave of human excrement is trucked to the 1 main Dubai treatment plant, but the queue of poop-trucks waiting to get in and empty is miles and miles and miles long.
It can take the poor drivers days to crawl their trucks along the queue. Because the queue is always slowly moving, they can't stop for a piss or to sleep, and of course the truck spends a long time for just 1 load cycle. The temptation then to either just spray it into the desert, or dump it down a storm water drain is proving overwhelming. With the result that parts of Dubais coastline are literally full of shit. A few months ago Dubai International City was also trapped in a lake of sewage for weeks.
I guess that's one way to discourage those pesky British tourists from bonking on the beach! See also Raw Sewage Threat to Booming Dubai.
What I found shocking was that in just one month they caught 27 tankers dumping. Thats just those they caught. And the planned solution is to build a bigger car park for the trucks to wait in at the sewage plant. Like that'll work.
So, while Oman's method of hiring low-bid Chinese contractors and digging up all the streets is painful to watch, its certainly a lot better than the alternative...
Gulf News: Clean Up Act
People who tip off inspectors about sewage tankers dumping waste illegally will earn a cash reward of Dh2,000, Dubai Municipality announced yesterday.
The Municipality also revealed that the owners of 55 tankers caught this week were each fined Dh100,000. Salem Bin Mesmar, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Health, Safety and Environment Control Sector, said severe punitive actions would be taken against those who violate environment safety rules and regulations in Dubai.
Apart from fines, tankers could be confiscated for one to three months and trade licences of transporting companies may be suspended until further notice, he said, adding that any changes or addition to a tanker’s structure will result in severe legal actions.
Last month, Dubai Municipality’s Drainage Network Department caught around 27 tankers dumping sewage illegally into storm water lines. They were fined Dh50,000 each, which included cleaning costs.
Instead of dumping sewage at the Al Aweer Sewage Treatment Plant, many drivers prefer to empty their tankers in open areas or into storm water networks at Al Quoz, Al Barsha and Nad Al Sheba that are designed to carry pure rain water into the sea. This has resulted in polluting parts of Dubai’s coastline.
Municipality inspectors are now keeping a close watch for dumping between midnight and 5am.
Dubai Municipality is currently undertaking a project to reduce the waiting time for tankers at the Al Aweer Sewage Treatment Plant. The project involves construction of a 50,000 square metre parking lot that may make the dumping process smoother.
Quick swim anyone?
