UAE | Housing & Property

Water from mosque, hotels helps Dubai villa residents survive

Tenants living in a Mankhool villa that has had electricity and water supplies cut off are forced to seek water from nearby mosques and hotels.

  • By Alice Johnson, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:41 July 25, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Some tenants have been forced to seek water from nearby mosques and hotels, or to drive around in their cars to cool off.
  • Image Credit: Hadrian Hernandez/Gulf News
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Dubai: Children living in a Mankhool villa that has had its electricity and water supplies cut off are suffering from heat rash and tenants are forced to seek water from nearby mosques and hotels.

Gulf News reported on Friday that the landlord had been given notice that the utilities would be cut by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), but did not inform the tenants.

Shilpa, a resident at the villa, said: "The children are really suffering - they have heat rash and are itchy all over because of the heat. They are not sleeping either. It's very, very bad because whole families are sleeping in their cars. We are driving around in the car now, just to cool down."

DEWA has been instructed by the Dubai Municipality Building Department to cut off the utilities to villas that don't comply with building regulations.

The Mankhool villa has been separated to accommodate more people than building regulations allow.

"We have found new accommodation, but we can't move in there until next month. Until then we have to stay in the villa. We are getting water from the shops and from our neighbours, and also from a nearby mosque," Shilpa said.

Andrew, also a resident in the Mankhool villa, said that the tenants' children are becoming increasingly agitated.

Sharjah residents hit

"The children are the worst affected over the last two days. They are crying because it's so hot - they don't know what is going on. We have been going to a local hotel to use the bathroom and we are using friends and neighbours villas to wash in the morning. We are all sleeping in our cars - everybody is there in the evenings.

"Three or four families have left already and four are staying at other people's houses. Some of the families are on vacation in India and Pakistan. What will happen when they come back? They don't know anything about it and their doors are locked," he said.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, some Sharjah residents have also been sleeping in their cars, because the electric supply keeps switching off indiscriminately.

The electricity supply to houses in Industrial Area Three, switches off approximately twice a week. This has been happening for so long, that residents now say it's a normal thing.

Santosh, who did not want to give his family name, said: "Whole families are sleeping in their cars, because it's too hot. They are not able to sleep and children are really suffering because it's so hot - without air conditioning, how will they survive?

"The electricity goes off in the middle of the night and it only seems to be this area. It has been like this for at least six months," he said.

Residents will be putting in a complaint to Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority.

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