Many apartment blocks in the UAE do not have an overhang between each floor, which unfortunately lets laundry, which is loosely tied on the upper floors, fall onto the laundry of the tenants below. This fall is soon followed by the unsolicited ringing of the doorbell by the owner of the fallen laundry, as they come to collect their stuff with an apologetic smile.
And the trouble does not end there, as cigarette ash, burning cigarette butts, used tissues, ring pulls from drink cans and other rubbish finds its way to the lower floors.
If the helpless victims launch a mild protest then those living on the upper floors immediately rebuff them by arguing that it was not their act, but the deed of the tenants residing further above.
Moreover, in high rise buildings, if wet laundry is hung at the same time by multiple residents on the upper floors, then those residing on the first floor never know when their laundry will dry as the water continuously drips down on to their clothes.
I think the authorities need to make it a statutory requirement that dividers be installed between every floor in order to stop others’ messes from falling onto the laundry of the occupants residing below. This requirement might also save the life of a child in case he or she should fall out of a window.
Also, the dish antennas popping out from balconies and roofs are a huge safety concern as some have been known to fly off on stormy days.
- The reader is chief electrical engineer at an engineering firm in Dubai.
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