Food and water reserves planned for emergencies

Dubai: The UAE plans to create strategic food staples, medicine and water reserves to satisfy needs during emergencies, a top official told the Federal National Council (FNC) yesterday.

Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi, Director-General of the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority, was speaking as the House heard the country's food security is threatened because of the lack of a crystal clear strategy and food staple reserve.

Al Rumaithi said an initiative to create strategic food staples, medicine and water reserves would be submitted to the Cabinet by mid-April for approval.

Khalid Bin Zayed, a representative from Dubai, questioned the UAE's readiness to face up to disasters — whether the country would face shortage of food, medicine and water during emergencies.

Al Rumaithi replied that the UAE has a food staple reserve sufficient to meet peoples' consumption for five months and hospitals across the country have medicine reserves to meet the demand for up to six months.

"We have pioneering projects to create water reserves in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah and studies are being conducted to link the water network to meet the public needs," he said.

A report worked out by an adhoc committee said the UAE's food consumption was steadily growing by 12 per cent annually and the demand for food staple had increased by 30 per cent due to population increase.

The report also showed that the country imports around 68 per cent of its food, quoting statistics of the Ministry of Economy, which were challenged by several members of the legislatures as outdated.

Meeting requirements

Members of the House demanded a food staple reserve be created to meet market requirement for six months and investment in agriculture be boosted to reach an effective food security.

The debate comes as political turmoil sweeps across several Arab countries and prices around the world rise to an all-time high.

Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, recently told the chamber the UAE was investing in farms abroad, especially in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Romania and Americas to secure food supplies and protect itself from being at the mercy of market fluctuations.

Law on tickets: New rules put in place

The Federal National Council (FNC) yesterday passed changes to the Federal Traffic law no 12 of 2007.

The new rules which replace article 61 of the law, state that drivers who reject tickets issued to them must be referred to the public prosecution and if they are found guilty, they will face the penalty stated in the law.

At present, the law approves rejection of tickets but limits the penalty for drivers found guilty to only 50 per cent of the fine mentioned in the table of violations.