Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Municipality has intensified campaign against crowding in apartments and houses as part of its campaign to ensure safety and security of residents.
A total of 645 warnings have recently been issued against residents who have modified apartments or villas, or were living in makeshift structures built without the necessary building permits, the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City announced on Wednesday.
The campaign, which was conducted by the Municipality in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Police, focussed on worker-occupied units in the capital city’s suburbs, including Bani Yas, Al Wathba, Shamkha and Shawamekh. It inspected about 4,000 apartments and villas, and found violations such as internal partitions, unlicensed temporary walls and additional structures built without obtaining municipal permits.
In addition, municipal inspectors also worked to create awareness about the health and environmental risks, as well as relevant regulations, of people living in crowded quarters within residential districts.
Offenders were initially issued written warnings, and asked to remove the violating structures within a specified grace period. They were also warned that failure to remove the violations would result in the case being forwarded to the Municipal prosecutions and courts.
Owaida Al Qubaisi, acting executive director of municipal services at the Municipality, said the objective of these inspection campaigns is to ensure compliance with Law No 1 for 2011 for the emirate of Abu Dhabi, which regulates the occupancy of residential units. He added that the inspections ensure that the safety and health of residents is protected, and that workers live in decent conditions.
The Abu Dhabi Government recommends that workers be housed in designated worker accommodations outside the city, such as the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi in Mussaffah area. However, workers added that they prefer to live in the city as worker accommodations are located too far from the capital.
“It’s not as if we like living in unsafe apartments, or sharing our quarters with so many people. But most of our work is in the city’s business hub, and staying in the designated worker accommodations in the suburbs means that we miss out on appointments. This is especially because reaching the city takes too much time in the morning when there is a lot of traffic on the roads,” said M.S., a pickup driver who lives in a shared apartment on Airport Road. Each room in his three-bedroom apartment currently houses about eight people, although Municipality laws say that a maximum of three people can stay in a single room.
“We earn about Dh1,300 a month, but the average rent for each room is about Dh3,000. How will we pay this, provide for our expenses and yet manage to send money to our families back home?” he said.
A worker who declined to be named also said he is aware that unlicensed partitions in apartments are illegal. He lives in a building where a fire earlier this year killed three people.
“I know that my building is unsafe, and that there are too many people in each apartment. But I would rather live here and face eviction from the Municipality than live in worker accommodations in Mussaffah, where you are not allowed to cook for yourself, and there is no privacy,” he added.
