NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
'Superloos’ make debut in capital
The new toilets have been described as the most technically advanced public lavatories in the world. Lauren Lancaster / The National
ABU DHABI - MARCH 24: Answering the call of nature in the capital is about to become much more comfortable and hygienic when 60 hi-tech lavatories are installed along the Corniche, near major roads and in parks. At a total cost of Dh50 million (US$13.6m), the new self-cleaning toilets are part of the municipality’s scheme to update “street furniture” also including the city’s bus shelters and benches.
The lavatory booths were originally scheduled for installation last year, but Viola, the marketing firm which supplies the “superloos”, said the project had been delayed by problems with water, sewer and telephone connections.
Ammar Sharaf, chief executive of the company, gave an assurance this week that all the toilet blocks would be working by June. The units are to be stationed in areas of high pedestrian traffic such as the Spinneys grocery store in Khalidiya, where a non-operational demonstration unit is already located.
As well as having air conditioning and emergency phones, the automatic toilets will be equipped with instructions in Arabic, Urdu, English and Farsi. Some of the gender-neutral units will have motorised floors that rotate, sanitise and dry between uses. Other units will have automatic brushing mechanisms.
“What we’re presenting will be like the Mercedes class of toilets,” Mr Sharaf said. “It’s the latest technology in automatic public toilets in the world.”
The Italian sanitary services company PT Matic will build 30 of the facilities and the Swedish firm Danfo will supply the rest.
Mr Sharaf said users would deposit Dh2 to unlock the booth door. “You pick your language, you put the coins in and when the door opens, you go in and the system talks to you,” he said.
So far, 10 demonstration lavatories from both supply companies are in the city centre awaiting hookups to power and sewer lines, according to JD Bhardwaj, the general manager of Danfo Middle East.
Mr Bhardwaj added that the Swedish units had been specially designed for a Middle Eastern climate and used up two-thirds less water than other similar automatic toilets “while still giving 99.9 per cent hygiene”.
Jihad Messarra, the marketing manager for PT Matic, said the company had also signed an agreement with Dubai Municipality to supply 100 Italian-designed blocks.
A maintenance team will monitor the capital’s toilets around the clock, he said. “For example, if the soap or water is low inside, there will be a sensor sending for maintenance ... and they will come fix it,” Mr Messarra said.
The installation of Abu Dhabi’s new toilets follows a municipality survey of 10,000 residents in 2007, which identified the condition of public conveniences as one aspect of the city that could be improved.
In an interview last year Omar al Hashemi, head of the municipality’s City Image Management section, said “the city’s urban furniture should reflect the prestige and the importance of the capital”.
Regarding the old toilets and the need to switch to state-of-the-art facilities, he noted that “the frequency of the cleaning was not matching the hygienic standards”.
Residents have complained about the city’s public toilets in the past.
Ramesh Menon, 42, who works for an oil production company in the capital, said clean outdoor washrooms were in short supply near the Corniche beach area as well as public parks and along Sheikh Zayed Road.
“It’s a very useful idea for the public to have neat and clean toilets and it’s also necessary because there are people coming from outside and right now they have to use the malls,” said Mr Ramesh. “If a mall is not open, where will they go?”
Mr Sharaf agreed sanitary public lavatories were lacking in the city.
“A lot of people are afraid, actually, to use public toilets,” he said, adding that the maintenance of such public facilities was vital to a city’s image. “Imagine you are a tourist and you’re going to a bad toilet. The first thing you’re going to say when you get home is, ‘The country was nice, but the toilets were not’.”
The 60 locations chosen for the lavatories by the municipality may just the first stage in a larger plan to improve the emirate’s public facilities. In time, the hi-tech toilets could go beyond the island.
“I’m sure that Abu Dhabi needs a lot more than 60,” Mr Sharaf said. “We discussed good plans to go to the Western Region and Al Ain because those places are growing, so I think a time will come to service those areas.”
Doctors violate prescription law
ABU DHABI - MARCH 24: Doctors have been illegally prescribing themselves controlled drugs, an official investigation has found.
The Health Authority – Abu Dhabi (HAAD) conducted spot checks on pharmacies, and found a number of violations after inspecting prescription pads in pharmacies.
The authority would not say which drugs had been illegally prescribed, but the Ministry of Health list of controlled substances includes Valium, tramadol and diazepam.
In February, HAAD told health facilities and pharmacies that its inspectors had identified doctors “prescribing controlled drugs for themselves and subsequently being dispensed by pharmacists”.
The inspectors had also been checking for pharmacies that were selling counterfeit medicines, stocking out-of-date medicines, or selling prescription-only drugs over the counter.
The memo urged pharmacists to verify patients’ names when dispensing controlled drugs.
Dr Mohammed Abuelkhair, the head of drugs and medical product regulation section at HAAD, said doctors had to follow the same procedures as other patients to obtain prescription-only drugs.
“The procedure is the same for all patients,” he said. “Health professionals must consult a doctor or specialist in order to obtain their prescriptions.”
Dr Abuelkhair said the exact drugs the doctors had prescribed themselves were irrelevant, but that there was an “expansive list of controlled drugs with various therapeutic categories”.
Dr Abuelkhair said anyone found breaching either of the relevant laws would be fined. It is also understood that their cases could be passed on to the police.
Self-prescribing is illegal in many parts of the world. The General Medical Council in the UK said doctors should not treat themselves and should be registered with another, independent GP.
Over the past year health authorities across the Emirates have introduced tougher rules for pharmacies and the distribution of drugs.
In the Ministry of Health’s draft National Pharmacy Programme for 2008-2010, it was estimated that about 70 per cent of pharmacists sell antibiotics over the counter, which is also illegal.
It also said outdated standards of pharmacy practice had led to “poor standards of patient care and will inhibit the growth of the profession’s value to the country”.
In April the ministry, which has jurisdiction over the northern Emirates, wrote to more than 1,100 pharmacies demanding that they perform monthly inspections to check for possible breaches of the pharmacy law, or risk having their licences revoked.
It also warned that it was giving its inspectors more power to close pharmacies acting illegally.
One of the other problem areas in the sector is counterfeit medicine. Last year The National revealed that a proposed pharmacy law included much tougher penalties particularly for those who make or sell counterfeit drugs.
HAAD described the practice as “a vile and serious criminal offence that puts human lives at risk and undermines the credibility of the health system”.
Next week, delegates at the Dubai International Pharmaceuticals and Technologies Conference will discuss the new law and better ways to regulate the sector.
Dr Ali al Sayed, the director of the pharmaceutical services department at Dubai Health Authority, said last week many pharmacists needed educating about their role.
Dr al Sayed said: “We want to educate the pharmacists about how they can better educate the public. The public may see pharmacists as doctors but they are not, they are guides.”
Leftovers feed workers at labour camps
DUBAI - MARCH 24: More than seven tons of food left over from parties, weddings, international conferences and other major events have been collected and given out this year to labourers needing a decent meal.
The municipality has distributed the food at labour camps in areas including Sonapur and Al Quoz as part of its food recovery programme. More than 2,000 workers have felt the benefit of the initiative since January, officials said.
Khalid Sharif al Awadhi, the director of the Food Control Department, said: “This is just the first step to reduce wastage of good, edible food.
“We would like to increase the participation of other companies and volunteers so that the volume of food wastage is reduced substantially.”
Mr al Awadhi said Dubai imported almost 85 per cent of its food and an “enormous” amount – some 20 per cent of food from households, commercial kitchens, markets and restaurants in the city – was wasted.
The food recovery initiative began in January, when volunteers started collecting food from leading hotels and delivering it to labourers.
“The handouts are always such that it makes one good meal for the person,” said Mohammed Sadique, a co-ordinator at the Kerala Youth Cultural Club, which was the first to co-ordinate with the municipality in collecting and delivering the food.
“We usually pick up the food in the night after the function concludes,” he said. “The orders usually come on weekends when big functions are held.”
Excess food from big dinners has been collected from the Dubai World Trade Centre, Al Boom Tourist Village, Al Bustan Rotana and other hotels and restaurants.
“In each trip we are able to collect food for an average of 100 to 120 people and we have already made over 20 trips since the start of this year,” said Mr Sadique, adding that biryani, Indian curries, bread and other meat dishes were the most popular among the workers.
Gulfood, the international festival held in Dubai last month, provided almost two tons of food for workers at the Sonapur camps.
Food and drinks were packed into 185 kits and distributed to workers, while items with a longer shelf-life, such as dried fruits, tea, coffee and pasta, were handed to common kitchens.
Mr al Awadhi said his department ensured the food was collected and served safely. Organisations that collected perishable, cooked foods were required to have proper storage and transport facilities.
People or organisations wishing to take part in the programme can call Dubai Municipality on (04) 206 4211.
Flash floods strike village homes in Fujairah
FUJAIRAH - MARCH 24:Eleven houses in a small village in Fujairah were damaged by flash floods yesterday after torrential downpours ruptured a gully embankment.
There were no reports of injuries in the sparsely populated Sharam area of the emirate, and authorities denied rumours that a broken dam had caused the flooding.
“The problem was with a channel that took water from a mountain wadi into the sea; it was not a dam that broke,” said Saif al Afham, the general manager of Fujairah Municipality.
According to the state news agency WAM, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of the UAE Red Crescent Authority, immediately ordered emergency relief to those affected by the surprise downpours, which began yesterday morning.
“The RCA is preparing to attend to the people in Fujairah and to provide all forms of support, in coordination with the Fujairah Ruler’s Court and Civil Defence,” said Suhail Rashid al Qadi, director of the RCA’s branch in Fujairah, according to WAM.
Mr al Afham said both federal and local authorities were quick to respond: “We cut the power to the affected homes shortly after the incident to avoid the risk of electrocutions, but we had it restored again by 4pm.