47 industrial firms fined

Some 47 industrial establishments were fined by Dubai Municipality in April for violating environment regulations.

The violations were detected by inspectors of the Environment Protection and Safety Section at the Environment Department of the municipality, who carried out 498 inspections of industrial establishments of Dubai.

The Safety Unit of the section carried out 309 inspection visits to construction sites, swimming pools, hotels, toyshops, amusement shops, and accident sites and issued 34 fines against offenders.

During these visits, 126 construction sites were inspected to check whether safety was provided at the sites and employees were equipped with the necessary safety devices. Ninety-five toyshops were checked for the compliance of toys with safety norms and to ensure that no banned toys were on sale.

Other safety inspection visits included four visits to follow up accidents that occurred due to the absence of safety precautions, and 11 visits on the basis of complaints from the public.

The section approved 36 applications for building swimming pools after ensuring that they met health and engineering requirements.

The section has also continued to monitor the quality of water in the creek and the sea and cleaned it of polluting substances.

Checks are also being undertaken on ships that cruise through the creek, and that anchored at the ports as well as at natural sanctuaries.

Routine patrolling is carried out using boats of the Marine Environment Safety Unit to prevent any practices that harm the marine environment or violate any of the maritime environment rules in Dubai.

During the period under review, these patrols have imposed fines on 22 violators. The section has also inspected fishing villages, fishing net factories, and shops selling fishing nets, natural sanctuaries in Ras Al Khor and Jebel Ali, in small creeks, on coastal areas, boat anchorage areas and ports.

A draft document was prepared during the month of April for signing a co-operation agreement between Dubai Municipality and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The tests on air quality in Dubai have shown that the emirate's air quality is good in general and at the desired level.