Dubai: Dubai Municipality has urged the public not to litter while they are out watching the New Year fireworks even as the city’s litter-busters are gearing up with a massive waste management plan for the event.
The Waste Management Department of the civic body will deploy a large contingent of workers and equipment to tackle the rubbish post the official New Year fireworks at Burj Khalifa. Additional workers will also be deployed in other areas of the city where revellers will gather to watch the fireworks.
“We held a coordination meeting with the Burj Khalifa management on Thursday in order to determine the festivity areas and the entrances and exits,” Abdul Majeed Abdul Aziz Al Saifaie, director of the department, told Gulf News.
The department has drafted its work plan and preparations for the cleanliness of the New Year celebration based on the outcome of the meeting.
Apart from the trash bins installed in the area by developer Emaar, the municipality will provide 106 trash collectors of different sizes for the event.
After the fireworks, municipal cleaners usually pick up litter such as water bottles, soft drink cans, fast food packets, confetti as well as paper and carton waste from the fireworks.
Al Saifaie urged the public not to strew rubbish around and dispose of rubbish in the designated bins instead.
A team including 353 cleaners and 29 supervisory staff from the Operations and Cleaning Services Section and 364 cleaners provided by private companies will be in charge of clearing the litter after the crowds disperse from the Downtown area after the fireworks, he said.
The department usually picks up the well-trained and most hardworking cleaners for the swift operation in the early hours. They will be provided with nine pick-up vehicles, sand sweepers and other machinery and equipment.
In addition to this, the emergency and crises team called Sanid which has all the field staff officers and monitors (140), workers (1,500) and the equipment from the department will pitch in for the clean-up operation in case of any emergency.
Last year, a whopping 23 tonnes of waste was cleared from Downtown Dubai after the New Year fireworks in Burj Khalifa and the massive fire at the Address Downtown Dubai Hotel.
Some 500 men from the waste management department toiled for hours to keep the area spick and span by next morning.
Compared to the figures released in 2014, after the Guinness World Record-breaking pyrotechnic displays for that year, almost 10 times more waste was collected from Downtown last year. Of the total refuse of 6.2 tonnes collected post the New Year celebrations in 2014, some 2.5 tonnes was picked up from around the Burj Khalifa.
