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Arabian Ranches residents face acute water shortage

DUBAI — Residents of Arabian Ranches — the upmarket freehold property developed by Emaar Properties in Dubai are facing an acute water shortage over the past two days and have urged the authorities for immediate remedial action.

Residents said they have been facing the problem off and on since early January. Gibran Salim, a resident of Saheel locality at Arabian Ranches, said the recent problem which started on Thursday has prolonged with no immediate solution in sight.

Emaar officials have pinned the blame on the faulty water pumping system installed by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa). But when the residents contacted Dewa, the blame was passed on to poor maintenance of water pumps by Emaar, said Salim.

In the past, Emaar had made arrangements for water tankers to supply water to the residents during water crisis. But, this time, the problem seems never-ending and there was no attempt to supply water through water tankers, residents said.

A representative at the customer services at Emaar, when contacted by Khaleej Times, confirmed the water shortage problem. He said they were using water tankers to fill up the water lines. Four water tankers were at work, filling up the water lines, he said, adding this was the only option available.

He said the Dewa lines were faulty and as a result the water pipes were getting blocked causing disruption in water supply to homes.

Meanwhile, residents said around 2,000 of them were affected, even as they have paid huge amounts of money to live in the upmarket localities of Arabian Ranches.

A resident who posted his complaint on the Arabian Ranches Residents Committee web site stated: “Most of Savannah is out as well and the Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS) had no water today either. Dewa says water should be back on at 5 ha ha. I will wait and see. There has been a large breakage in the line, hence no water for Arabian Ranches.”

“ I don’t believe there is a pipe rupture and if that is the case then there have been too many ruptures since January 2006. The pipe must have become a sieve by now,” said Jibran Daar.

“ There is no water in my house since Friday morning and I have requested for a water tanker but no one has turned up even after three reminders. This morning, I used mineral water bottles for getting ready for office,” Daar said, complaining that Arabian Ranches properties cost an arm and a leg and the basic facilities have not been planned for by Emaar.

Dorrells, another affected resident said, “I too am disgusted by the situation and can’t believe we have not been issued with some formal explanation.” She said that Emaar informed her husband that their water pump was not big enough even though they had replaced it once already?

Kalkats said the latest update received from a site engineer was that there is not enough water supply from dewa and a new main line is in the process of being installed and that it will be operational from November 2006. “Till then we would continue to face such problems and so our pumps can continue being short circuited and we can continue shelling out thousands of dirhams getting it repaired,” he said, urging the need to get Emaar to compensate them by giving a rebate on their outgoings.

Another resident said, “It is appalling everytime I call Emaar and demand an explanation. Besides, I am fed up with the blame game between Emaar and Dewa. ”

“Lack of water has resulted in blowing up my sprinkler system set on a timer. As a result the grass and plants in my garden have dried. I spent Dh1500 getting a new pump and timer installed and finally when I got that fixed again there was no water and it almost tripped and short circuited again,” the resident said. He also blamed the residents committee for not initiating any action to resolve the crisis.