UAE | Environment

Truck seen dumping sewage in Jebel Ali

Suspicions of dumped sewage around the Jebel Ali industrial area were confirmed recently when a Gulf News reader spotted a tanker driver emptying his truck on the side of the road.

  • By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 01:18 September 30, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • A tanker driver dumps raw sewage near Jebel Ali.
  • Image Credit: Christos Psaras/Gulf News Reader
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Dubai: Suspicions of dumped sewage around the Jebel Ali industrial area were confirmed recently when a Gulf News reader spotted a tanker driver emptying his truck on the side of the road.

Christos Psaras, deputy transport manager for a contractor based in Jebel Ali, said he spotted the culprit while driving on the way to a meeting.

"As soon as he saw me he climbed on to the truck to turn off the valve. It was the first time I saw a truck doing that but I pass the area often and it just looks like a lake of sewage," he said.

"I contacted the police and emailed them the photos but they told me to go to my nearest police station and file a report - I simply don't have time," said Psaras who has lived in Dubai since 1999.

"Everything is moving too fast and some areas do not have the time to catch up," he said, including waste management.

He said his company had faced the same problems of sewage trucks going to Al Aweer sewage treatment plant all over Dubai are facing - making only two drops maximum per day per truck.

"About five years ago they could make six trips a day. What we have done is to buy more trucks, so the work of one is now done by about three," said Psaras. He says the increased fleet is able to cope with collecting sewage from several of the company's labour accommodations.

"We have about 20 trucks now but of course some people don't have the means to buy more trucks. Drivers make about Dh800 to Dh1,000 for each drop so instead of queuing up for kilometres they are finding other places to dump the sewage," said Psaras.

Besides industrial zones, sewage has turned up on the beaches as storm drains are being used to empty sewage trucks. Keith Mutch, manager of the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club wrote to Gulf News that he had witnessed sewage trucks dumping sewage in Al Quoz.

Dubai Municipality said 27 tankers have been fined this month for dumping sewage illegally and were fined at least Dh50,000 each, which includes a clean up fee for flushing out the pipelines.

Vehicle recovery company general manager Frank Murray said he had to recover a four-wheeler from an area in Jebel Ali which has been used to dump sewage.

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