23 tonnes of waste collected after fire and fireworks in Downtown Dubai

Dubai - 500 men from municipality's waste management department toiled for hours to keep the area spick and span by next morning.

The city's litter-busters cleared a whopping 23 tonnes of waste from Downtown Dubai after the New Year fireworks in Burj Khalifa and the massive fire at the Address Downtown Dubai Hotel.
Releasing the details of the clean-up operations after the fire and fireworks, the Dubai Municipality said 500 men from its waste management department toiled for hours to keep the area spick and span by next morning.
"Five hundred cleaners, 20 supervisors and the emergency and crisis team from the waste management department were the unknown heroes of the New Year celebrations and the unfortunate Address Hotel fire! These soldiers helped cover the events which lasted for 15 hours and gathered 22.7 tonnes of waste," the civic body posted on its social media pages.
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 this year from Downtown. Of the total refuse of 6.2 tonnes collected post the New Year celebrations in 2014, some 2.5 tonnes were picked up from around the Burj Khalifa, mainly consisting of litter such as water bottles, soft drink cans, fast food packages, confetti as well as paper and carton pieces from the fireworks.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, the director of the department Abdul Majeed Al Saifaie said the New Year Eve's waste management plan this year stood in good stead for the team to handle the emergency work after the fire in Downtown, Dubai.
"Since we had a plan for New Year's night, we had a lot of workers ready for that area when the fire took place just hours before the fireworks. We used a part of our team for cleaning up the area after the fire, as well," he said.
The department had picked the well-trained and most hard working bunch of employees for the swift cleanup programme which also tackled huge amounts of litter thrown around by the tens of thousands who watched the fireworks.
"They started work after 2pm on Friday as there was no point in cleaning up when people were still going around. Most of the work was done in just four hours. By 6am the next morning, you could see all the streets clean and there was no sign of any celebration," said Al Saifaie.
He lauded the efforts of the unsung heroes who keep Dubai clean and beautiful and requested the public to continue to cooperate with them.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE