Dubai puts into action rainwater drainage system

Dubai Municipality has put in intensive efforts to address rainwater collections throughout the emirate during the past few days, in its efforts to build a happy and sustainable city.

According to a 24-hour work programme, based on an analysis of meteorological reports and weather forecasts in the Emirate of Dubai, all measures were taken to deal with the expected emergency communications due to rainfall, beginning 14th March 2019. On Friday morning, rain showers were observed in many areas, with rainfall expected to reach 5mm per hour from Friday to Sunday.

The Dubai Municipality team has completed all preparations to meet the effects of rainwater catchments in the coming days too because this type of rainfall is often not specific and expected in terms of the amount of water left behind because it is caused by rainfall that comes along with thunderstorms.

Rainfall varied in intensity between medium and heavy. Observations showed that rainwater was not collected in many areas of Dubai.

Talib Julfar, CEO, Infrastructure Services Sector and team leader of Ghaith Dubai, said, "The city has 60 pumping stations for rainwater, within the 1.75 million metre long pipe network, with 28,000 inspection chambers and 72,000 drainage holes connected to it. All these systems end up with 28 outlets to the sea or to Dubai Creek. The specialised technical teams comprised multiple departments that work as per their specialties to carry out maintenance programmes for surface water and rainwater drainage stations."

He added that the responsibility of rainwater falls on the main drainage system, which covers most of the city of Dubai, and there are some areas that are not connected to the general network of rainwater drainage and in this case, the concerned teams in the municipality are responsible for discharging the accumulated rainwater either by tankers or using portable pumps.

"Any drainage network, no matter how much it can, has limits that cannot be bypassed. Therefore, the rainwater drainage network in Dubai does its work normally, within the given design and operational capacity. But if the rain intensity is heavy, the general network will take a relatively longer time than usual to drain the water. In the end, the network is highly reliable and dependable, and this is what has been seen far and wide," pointed out Julfar.

The Dubai Municipality called upon all those who observe any accumulation of rainwater to never hesitate to report it by using the Dubai 24/7 App, which is now an emerging communication channel between the municipality and the community.

The municipality also invited the public to understand the priorities as the declared priorities for the field work range from the main streets, sub-streets to the other areas and squares. It also called for the discharge of rainwater from the roofs of houses and buildings to the sewerage system.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.