Residents Meeting: Tonight at 7pm, DRAGON MART

[hOOters]

Is everyone aware of a residents meeting taking place at 7pm tonight at the Dragonmart?

Senior people from Nakheel will be there to answer questions relating to International City, such as why they decided to built a sewage treatment plant right on our doorstep, why the service charges are so high, why we have no shops, restaurants, etc etc.

Its by invite only, which you would have got if you completed a survey sent out end of January 08.

Contact Nakheel if you didnt get an invite and want to go.

Thanks

[Lsab]

No, knew nothing about it. If you're going could you please let us know what was said? Thanks.

[dalvir bains]

There's nowhere to shop, say International City residents


Dubai: Residents of International City are upset by the lack of shops and medical services in the area.

This comes after Gulf News reported last week that residents complained about the traffic and access problems, the lack of signage and the smell of waste water from the nearby Al Aweer sewage plant.

Other issues raised by International City residents in recent days are the lack of shops and facilities.

British-Egyptian A.H. moved to the Spain cluster last month: "My local supermarket is really expensive. I think they know that we can't go anywhere else and there's no competition nearby."

"Things like doctors, forget about it. There are no doctors here," he said.

Local business owner A.S., an Iranian, called an ambulance after his friend had a domestic accident.

"I had to call the emergency services after my friend had an accident, because there's no immediate medical assistance in the area. There aren't even any pharmacies."

Filipino resident W.T. said he leaves International City to do his shopping, because "it's too expensive to buy inside the development".

Another issue still proving to be a bone of contention for residents is the traffic situation.

J.H. a secretary from the UK, said: "Big trucks pull up on the side of the road by the main entrance, making cars drive across two lanes to get in, it's very dangerous.

"I want to know whey there's only one lane leading to the main part of International City."

A spokesperson at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said road development projects in the area surrounding International City are on the cards and there will be more roads linking the area with Emirates Road and the Dubai Bypass Road.

Gulf News also received more complaints about the smell. W.T., a Filipino, has been living in International City's Spain cluster for the past three months.

"My daughter is two years old and is supposed to be coming to live with me soon.

"However, I feel it's not healthy to let a two-year-old live in this place, it smells. I was told I would enjoy the community lifestyle, but I don't see anything like that here."

A Dubai Municipality official said there are plans to move the sewage treatment plant, which is currently in Al Aweer. But he did not say when.

Developer's Response

'Vibrant community'

Rashid Al Helli, General Manager of International City, a Nakheel development, responded to the complaints of some residents.

"International City is fast establishing itself as a vibrant community, providing much needed affordable living with excellent facilities for a broad range of people in Dubai. We are delighted with the progress to date and more than 50,000 people have moved into their new homes; facilities are continuously being being made available, landscaping is well underway, and community events are held regularly.

"As this community develops further, International City will continue to provide a diverse range of commercial and retail offerings for residents. In total, there will be more than 5,000 retail units, with each building in the residential district offering a variety of retail and dining outlets.

"International City continues to be an enormous draw for people in search of quality housing at an affordable price, which was demonstrated by the sales success of the Emirates precinct recently."
(Gulfnews)

[georgihh]

Finally some good news for all the people living in international city.
Nakheel will build a new cluster named Emirates.

Emirates cluster is overlooking the sewage plant and is just next to the horrible monster.
Once is built the cluster will serve as a shield form the horrible smell to the rest of the international city clusters.

And to make the picture complete a temporary (could last for 10 years) sewage plant is operating on the other side of the cluster.

Adding to that 100s of the discharge tracks passing under your balcony you can’t miss the atmosphere of the sewage business – so good luck!

[hOOters]

waste of time.

They spent 20 minutes talking about upcoming developments by Nakheel, just what we all wanted to hear... NOT!


Then the talked about all the things they are planning to do at IC, such as build more basketball courts, add trees for shade, add a communal park. Then a further 10 minutes going through the survey residents completed. they sent out 14,000 and got 1400 responses, loads of pie charts about ages, race, method of transport, salary bracket, number of people per apartment etc etc etc. The survey results on Nakheels response to maintenance issues came out at 53% positive. 13% were very unhappy with the service. They said there was over crowding in some apartments which will be addressed.

Then this bus ops manager talked about how we should curb our water use and buy low energy bulbs and appliances and how it takes 700 years for a plastic bottle to decompose. then he talked about adding more re-cycling bins to IC by the end of next week and how they are going to start recycling polystyrene and all that.

They touched on the sewage issue for less than 2 minutes near the beginning, saying that its not their fault it smells so bad, it wouldn't normally be like that but because the sewage plant is being overworked and there is a shortage of sewage treatment plants they have to transfer the sewage when its wet which causes the smell (apparently, normal sewage treatment plants leave it out to dry first then transfer it, reducing the smell) they also said that some of the sewage trucks are just leaking the sewage out of their trucks in IC. Anyway, it wont be shut down, think they are just going to try and control the smell.

The petrol station outside IC is being knocked down next month to make another entrance into IC. Funnily enough everyone was late for the meeting because they were all stuck in traffic trying to get into IC. Nakheel admitted it takes nearly 20 minutes to get into IC because of the severe traffic backup by Dragon Mart. The new entrance should be open by the end of next month.


I didn't stay for the Q&A session because after an hour and 15 minutes of their corporate spin I'd had enough. Poor turnout though, only about 75 people there.

That was about it really so nothing positive to report.

Oh, they did mention plans of aswimming pool being built in IC.

[hOOters]

If you were one of the first 50 to arrive you were given a FREE dvd on the environment and how to do your bit.... Pretty hypocritical really considering Nakheel is the one who has ruined Dubai's coastline building 3 Palm's and The World..

Also, considering everyone was there to complain Nakheel decided to use it as a great PR stunt and photgraph the whole event.. needless to say I voiced my opinion that it was inappropriate!

[Lsab]

Thank you for the update hOOters. I never know whether we should hang on to our studio (Greece) or sell but it's things like this residents meeting that makes me prefer the latter!