Beautiful Fujairah raises a stink

FUJAIRAH — Fujairah and its surrounding areas are known for the serene beauty, lovely beach stretches and mountainous terrain, which have been attracting crowds from other emirates in the country.

The emirate in the northern most tip of UAE, however, has been, of late, in the news for the wrong reasons.

Residents of Fujairah, Khorfakan and Kalbaa have been, for quite some time now, exposed to a stink in the air, apparently from some sort of gas, the source of which remains a mystery.

Khaleej Times sought to unravel this mystery, and came up against a wall, with officials maintaining that there was no pollution in the area, and offered little help in tracking down the source of the foul smelling gas.

The residents, however, believe that the gas could be spreading from the chimneys of several factories in the Fujairah Free Zone or from the oil refinery. Both charges were dismissed by officials as baseless, on grounds that the emirate had an advanced air pollution combat system in place and the oil refinery stopping refinery operations three years ago.

The arguments notwithstanding, residents have been suffering from various illnesses particularly respiratory problems, and the matter needs to be looked into with all seriousness and with a sense of urgency.

Khaleej Times spoke to residents and officials alike, and this is what they had to say:

Anil Kumar, a technician with a medical centre in Fujairah city, said the foul smell was not a new phenomenon, and that it started two years ago. "It is particularly severe during winters and in the mornings. In the past two months, it has been quite bad. We can even find traces of some chemical substance on the floors during mornings. In the beginning, my wife and I were worried since we were suffering from constant cough, but now it has become routine for us. After the rains, the smell disappears for a while," he said.

Kumar believes that the main source of the stink is the oil refinery company located at the seacoast near Fujairah city, besides the several factories in the Port Free Zone.

Would the gas have any effect on the health of residents? Khaleej Times spoke to some people from the medical fraternity to verify this.

According to Dr Ohassan Sahib Al Husni, the number of patients reporting at hospitals had gone up in the past few months following the spread of the gas. "We had several patients complaining of respiratory problems and asthma, and the count was much higher than normal levels in asthma patients. Most of the patients were from areas located near the oil refinery and the free zone, besides the quarries dotting the mountains," Dr Ohassan said.

Attempts to speak to officials at the Fujairah Free Zone Authority were futile, as Haitham A. Al Alf, Operations Manager of the authority, declined to speak, stating that he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Engineer Mohammed Ahmed Kassim, Head of the Environment Protection and Development Department in Fujairah Municipality, said the emirate was free of any kind of pollution, what with the advanced anti-pollution system in place. "All the factories located in Fujairah Free Zone Authority constantly monitor the pollution as per the terms and conditions set by the government. We have stringent procedures in place, including a study on environmental impact of the activity the factory would be involved in, before we sanction licence for any factory," he said.

Pointing out that Fujairah had an advanced air pollution combat system, he said there were six air pollution monitoring and control stations, which were established in June 1999. The main station was located in the Food and Environment Control Laboratory in Fujairah city, and the remaining five were linked to it.