Dubai International City Smells Awful!!!!!

[wayneis]

Very True I heard the land was given to the building owners for next to nothing.

[wayneis]

Gtmash Emirates Today Reported about the smell last month in Feb and also this month Page 3 March 03rd 2007 Emirates Today Paper smell at International City and yes residents that live in International City have complained

ubai Municipality has promised to cleanse the air in and around International City and Al Warqa to rid the area of the pungent pong emanating from a nearby sewage treatment plant.

Emirates Today reported last month that several residents of China Town at the International City had complained about an unbearable smell from the treatment plant in Al Awir that gave them sleepless nights.

About 700 tonnes of sludge is generated each day following treatment of dirty water. The sludge is left uncovered, resulting in a foul smell.

By the end of the year, facilities will be created to either incinerate the sludge or treat it said Talib Abdul Karim Julfar, Director of the Drainage and Irrigation Department.

Officials have already drawn up detailed plans for a solution and are awaiting final approval from higher authorities. “We have received several complaints from residents and even construction workers in the area. Hopefully by the end of the year the problem will be resolved,” said Julfar.

The smell is usually worse at night but continues through the morning. Many residents said despite keeping the doors and windows closed, the odour would enter through the air-conditioning ducts.

Jamal Hashem is one of the residents who had complained to Dubai Municipality several times about the problem.

Following an investigation, the municipality team responded to Hashem’s complaint by stating there was no abnormal or different conditions than earlier periods in the area.

“The area of your accom modation is located adjacent to the Dubai Sewerage Treatment and Waste Processing Project and Waste Disposing Site II. The smell may exist sometimes depending on the prevailing conditions at that time,” the statement read.

But Julfar on Thursday told Emirates Today that the wind pattern in Dubai usually changes in the evenings when the humidity level becomes low, increasing the concentration of smell. “That is why people living in International City and Al Warqa experience bad odour in the evenings. It is not harmful to health.

However, we are trying our best to get rid of the problem. Apart from incinerating the sludge, we are also planning to divert a section of the inflow of sewerage water to the treatment plant in Jebel Ali,” he added. Residents hoped action would be taken at the earliest moment.

[gtmash]

As I mentioned before, I think Persia is at least better shielded than China, if not completely shielded by China itself. Those villas at Warqa are completely exposed. Hopefully the municipality will go through with their ideas to reduce the smell.

[irf77]

I have been going to int. city mainly in evenings for more than on eyear now on radom basis and have never had bad smell,,....

later i understood that normally once or twice a week it is bad in evenings, when they start the processing

today i went to see my apartment in moracco and spoken to watch man who is there for almost 2 1.2 year adn he said that smell is not a big concern

a) he has only smelled it once a month or so depending upon direction of wind
b) the smell is not that awaful........

so i guess this is not bad news.... '

[Razneer]

Mixed opinions on this subject so far. Time will tell!

[sahar]

We have a flat in persia, and yes,it smells here too.Do you think the problem will be solved completely?

[KingPin]

The properties are sold so not too much an issue for Nakheel. The property owners have sold their aparments and it seems they do not have a huge amount of say so there is not much they can do either.

The clincher will come when marketing of the central business hub begins aimed at large international companies. These guys are clever and they do their research before setting up offices.
No one will want their head office in an area that smells bad and has rats. So, this may be the pressure needed for the government to do something about relocating the sewage plant which in itself should be something they need to already think about if they are preparing to service the large influx of expats and respective companies not to mention the extra strain Dubailand will bring. If they choose to leave it where it is, it is going to get a whole lot worse.

[avion99]

We bought an apartment in Phase 3. Do you think is the smell be issue in Phase 3. Couldn't they move it to bit further away ?

[KingPin]

Dude,

I havent even got hold of my apartment. I should be so lucky as to inhale those finally fermented fumes any time soon.

Is Phase 3 the central hub? If so, I refer to my learned colleague to my thread earlier. The decsision lies with the government and how much importance they base on large business using IC and the surrounding areas as a base for movement to Sharjah, Ajman, UAQ, and RAK, and even Oman and Iran.

There will come a stage when they will need to expand. So, either they leave it there and issue us with gas masks and air freshener or they move it to somewhere they will not be building apartment or villas. I understand there is 2metre square patch of land out in the desert left somewhere.

[tbashir]

Just came back from Dubai and visiting International City. I went during the day twice and didn't smell anything in any of the sectors.
However on the last night I purposely went there around midnight. Around that time there was an awful smell like burning rubbish, which was very strong around Greece and parts of Persia. In fact when I went to Greece I could see huge flames coming from a plant some distance away where they may have been burning rubbish? I talked to one of the night watchmen and he said that there is a smell around 4am when they clean out the rubbish plant. I'm not sure whether this means there is smell from rubbish burning as well as sewage?
The good news for me was that the smell didn't go as far as Spain (where I have an apartment), and the night watchman said you cannot ever smell anything in Spain. I noticed that Italy and China also didn't smell and some other parts that I couldn't identify.