Dubai Municipality may increase the severity of punishment for those who pollute Dubai Creek after a chemical liquid dumped into the water was found to be highly toxic.
"The violators of our pollution regulation are ruthless. We are now looking at the penalties of dumping waste.
"For situations, like the one we had last month, we will seek much harsher punishment," said Redha Salman, who is the head of the Environmental Protection and Safety Department at Dubai Municipality.
The current law states that penalties for dumping waste into the Creek range from a fine of between Dh10,000 to Dh100,000.
The toxic chemical dump into the Creek was stopped in June when the Municipality's inspectors caught the culprit red-handed.
The inspectors' action prevented a complete emptying of the chemical into the water, but an estimated 60 barrels of the toxic agent were already dumped, before the offender could be stopped.
Dubai Municipality's analysis of the chemical have since revealed that the liquid, although initially reported to be a "perfume-based material" was actually, highly toxic.
"Our tests have shown that the chemical, used in making perfume, was extremely high in chemical oxygen demand," Salman said.
A chemical oxygen demand test looks to measure how much oxygen is needed to break down a chemical.
The more oxygen needed, the more that is taken out of the water, which then suffocates the marine life dependent on the water's dissolved oxygen.
"We are now monitoring to see what the long-term impact of such a hazardous chemical on the Dubai Creek will be," Salman added.
Independent experts had earlier pointed out the serious risk posed to the endan gered wildlife that live downstream of the Creek at the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary if the toxic chemical did not dilute in the water easily or became concentrated in the Creek's food chain.
The chemical dump incident has also highlighted the pollution problem in the emirate's water bodies.
From January 2006 until the end of May, the Dubai Municipality had removed a total of 123,000 tonnes of floating waste from the Dubai Creek. An additional 11,000 tonnes was gleaned from Al Hamriya Port.
Salman said the problem, while mainly due to unintentional loss of debris, was one the Municipality is taking very seriously. "The debris we have removed is mainly from the commercial operations on the creek. They are lightweight substances that have blown off cargo dhows, due to windy conditions," he said.
"We have set up surveillance and inspection teams in the area to prevent deliberate and unsafe pollution in the future," he added.
Dubai Ports Authority operates two large vessels to remove debris from the water, including a trash skimmer and a custom-built crane barge for special material handling.
Dubai Municipality uses two trash skimmers for similar work in the Creek.
By Zarina Khan
© Emirates Today 2006
