Pipe burst forces tower residents on to road

They had to spend the night sleeping in their cars on the streets, due to an explosion of the water pipe which affected the power supply and the generator. Water leaked into the stairways and the apartments

A water pipe exploded on the fifth floor causing an electric default that led to explosion of the generator as well. The water filled up the elevators’ holes, stairs and flowed into the apartments.

A resident called the civil defence and the police to rescue them from the crisis. The civil defence arrived at 12:10am and put the fire out at the generator room, dried the holes of the elevators, stairways and the apartments.

“The alternative emergency lights in the building were not working, the fire alarm system was also not working,” according to an official at the Ajman Civil Defence

Residents of the building said, despite the modernity of these towers which were newly constructed water and power disconnections are frequent.

“The generators should always be inspected by the municipality to prevent such kind of incidents which is a nightmare especially for families with infants and children,” Mohammod Al Saraj, a tenant of building said.

Buhairi Abdul Salam, another tenant, said, “I was at the mosque for the Taraweeh prayer and was informed by my family that a water pipe had exploded and the resultant leakage had seeped into the apartment which had no power. I just rushed to my apartment. The generators produce loud sounds always and this irritates the residents.”

“When we signed the contract with the management company they promised us with a lot services including TV cables, internet services, but nothing has been provided to us,” he said

Isam Al Deen, another tenant said, “Every day there are problems in these towers and we are the victims.”

Omar Hussain, a resident, said, the generators are not installed properly. It also works more than 20 hours when it should work only for eight hours based on the municipality conditions.

Yahiya Al Rayasa, Head of the Licensing Department, said the municipality recently issued licences to more than 100 commercial and residential units to use generators on certain safety conditions. These conditions include soundproof cages for generators.

Al Rayasa said the municipality has not received any complaints about noise pollution or any explosion of generators.

An official at the FEWA office here said the authority, supplying power to most of Sharjah and the other Northern Emirates, would not be able to meet the demand for sometime in future due to the population growth and rapid real estate development in these emirates.

“The power generation is not enough to meet the current demand,” the official said. Plans are under way to complete the Al Zawra power plant by 2012 which is expected to solve the power shortage in Ajman,” he said.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com