Opinion | Editorials
It is raining losses for the economy
In the absence of a decent drainage system, residents and business suffer.
- Gulf News
- Published: 00:43 January 16, 2008
As more rainfall is expected in the next few days, motorists in the UAE have a very legitimate question: Why is the development of the country's infrastructure not capable of coping with reasonable rainfall? Why should residents and drivers suffer every time there are a few millimetres of rain on the roads?
Yesterday, a day after the enforcement of an official day off on Monday because of US President George W. Bush's visit to Dubai, many people failed to reach their offices as roads were flooded in the Northern Emirates.
The long-awaited rain paralysed traffic in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman and businesses must have incurred losses amounting to millions of dirhams.
If the rains continue until Wednesday, as the weathermen are predicting, the economy will suffer a loss of at least Dh1 billion - an amount sufficient to build a decent drainage system in the next five years.
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