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Unclean water tanks? You're in for trouble

DUBAI - Residents of Dubai will not remain dependent on bottled water for very long now as the Public Health Department has taken up the issue of badly maintained and unclean water storage tanks in residential buildings, and all public places.

Together with its Food Control Section, the department established in March this year a sub-unit to take up the implementation of the chapter in Local Order 11 of 2003 pertaining to guidelines on water storage tanks in the emirate in order to ensure public health. Revealing this development to Khaleej Times in an exclusive interview yesterday, Salem bin Mesmar, Director of the Public Health Department at Dubai Municipality, said that the water, as it supplied by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) is approved by the World Health Organisation (Who) as fit for human consumption, but people have to use water filters or depend on bottled water owing to unclean and badly maintained water storage tanks.

"Water in Dewa pipeline across Dubai has been analysed as clean and free of any contamination, and the problem of suspended particles and contamination mainly occur in storage tanks and pipelines inside buildings.

"The Water Control Sub-unit is presently working on executive regulations in line with the Local Order, and has already drafted the practice and procedure to be followed by approved tank cleaning companies, the equipment and material that is to be used for the purpose, and the benchmark for qualifications and training of the employed by such companies," Mr Mesmar said.

With public health as its top priority the department after having laid down the requirements will carry out inspection of water tanks in residential buildings, schools - both private and government, mosques, public parks, government buildings, etc. and will have the authority to penalise violators, Mr Mesmar said.

According to Mr Mesmar, not only will the new regulations keep in check the condition of the storage tanks and the procedure and practices of cleaning companies, they will also take into purview the manufacturing of water storage tanks to ensure that proper non-toxic material is used. In order to keep the regulations updated, the sub-unit will study the issue and keep updating the specifications as and when the need arises in the future.

The implementation of these regulations, Mr Mesmar said, will help the civic body to get to the root of the problem of water contamination, develop ways to minimise its occurrence.

Problem of faucets-producing boiling water to be solved

By a staff reporter

DUBAI - The problem of faucets producing boiling hot water in summers will be settled. "Heat at the level and over a long period of time affects the inner material with which the storage tank is made of (or painted/coated with), and this can lead to contamination. This is why we will also ensure that storage tanks are either shaded against the sun or are coated with heat insulation material," Salem bin Mesmar, Director of the Public Health Department at Dubai Municipality said.