40pc of kids in Qirat suffer from asthma

Forty per cent of children living in the village of Qirat, eight kilometres north of Fujairah, suffer from asthma and other breathing diseases thought to be brought on by gases and the overpowering odour emanating from the nearby Fujairah Compost Factory.

Residents say the heaps of rubbish used as raw material to produce fertiliser at the factory are rendering the air unbreathable.

The villagers face another threat from poisonous gases produced by the nearby oil refinery, especially when an east wind blows.

"The bad smell from the factory has caused many breathing diseases in our children and our elderly. The polluted air caused by the factory covers the entire village every night and forces us to stay indoors," claimed Rashid Mohammed Shiban, a 25-year-old national from Qirat.

He said that the polluted air drifts as far as Al Qurayyah village and the pungent smell of rotting rubbish has affected palm trees planted in the village close to the factory.