Dubai: Illegal car workshops which pump oil into Dubai Creek are being targeted in a municipality crackdown.
The Environmental Emergency Office (EEO) at Dubai Municipality is the task force behind cleaning up the city’s Creek and beaches, which are at times contaminated with oil, chemicals, and solid waste, in addition to contaminants discharged from dhows and their engines.
“Most of the illegal discharge of oil that seeps into the sea through sewerage happens at auto workshops, when mechanics carry out oil changes, do not clean up the area properly afterwards, and then drain the residue into drains and manholes,” Khalid Sulaiteen, head of the EEO, told Gulf News.
“They also connect plastic pipes together and directly remove the oil from the car under repair, and into the drainage. We carry out raids with police and immigration teams, which are found mostly in Satwa, Sonapur, Jebel Ali and Al Quoz, and the people who carry out such negligent practices also have expired residency visas and use fake car parts in their workshops,” he said.
Over the last three years, Sulaiteen’s department has cracked down on auto workshops and tankers that illegally dump their chemical waste, with the number of fines drastically falling from 582 in 2010, 21 in 2012 and down to 11 in 2013.
Motorists who drive with oil leaking from their engines unknowingly contribute to polluting beaches, particularly after rain, when the oil ends up in the sewerage and out into Jumeirah Beach and other nearby beaches.
He stressed however, that not all the pollutants are from the sewerage as they also come from dhows in the Creek that are either involved in a fire accident or have an engine leak.
“In such instances of a fire, which recently happened last March near Jadaf port, we make a vacuum with a skimmer at the marine section to clean up whatever pollutants are contaminating the water, such as oil, plastic, and whatever else is inside the dhows,” said Sulaiteen.
He pointed out that the activity of illegal dumping by tankers can no longer be considered one of the main contributors to water pollution, as access to and from Dubai Creek, as well as Jadaf port, Al Khawaneej and the roads out to Dubai Sports City and Hatta are closely monitored by municipal inspectors.
“In the last three years, we imposed new rules so that anybody caught illegally dumping waste will have their residency visa cancelled, be slapped with a Dh100,000 fine and have their vehicle impounded for three months.”
The most recent illegal chemical dumping occurred in June 2012 which, according to Sulaiteen, resulted in an orange glop that blanketed the Jumeirah waters near the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club. .
Keith Wilson, Project Manager at Emirates Marine Environmental Group, lauded the efforts of officials, who said that the additional efforts against illegal dumpers may be the necessary means to prevent industrial pollutants.
“The municipality has clear-cut guidelines on how to dump industrial waste and if they see that violators should be reprimanded more, then it is not unreasonable to take such severe actions,” said Wilson.
