(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Truckoads of sand have been cleared from Dubai's highways and main streets following stormy conditions that prevailed over three days in the desert city.
The Dubai Municipality's workers have been toiling hard to clean up the sand accumulated on roads and clear the streets of uprooted trees and boards blown away in the stormy weather over the weekend and till Monday morning.
The waste management department of the municipality extended the working hours of its employees to keep the city clean during the bad weather conditions, a senior official told Khaleej Times.
"We have been working full load ... we have almost 2,000 workers working in two shifts around the city," said the Director of the department, Abdul Majeed Al Saifaie.
He said some of the labourers worked in double shifts. "We also extended the first shift by a couple of hours."
The department is making use of high-tech equipment and a new fleet of state-of-the-art trucks for collecting sand from the main streets and highways. "We are giving priority to clear highways and main streets so as to facilitate motorists," said Al Saifaie.
Highways are most prone to sand accumulation due to their close proximity to open sandy areas, said Yaqoob Mohammad Al Ali, head of the specialised cleaning section under the Waste Management Department.
He said a total of 586km of highways were cleared from sand accumulation. This was mainly from Al Qudra Road, Academic City Road, Emirates Road, Jebel Ali Road, Al Ain Road and Shaikh Zayed Road.
He said the employees of the section work 24/7 to serve the city and people living in the city. "Our section alone removed 21.61 tonnes of storm waste. During the sand storm, our section used six sand sweepers, an open truck and shovels."
Al Saifaie said the volume of sand removed by others like the operations team was not weighed. "Since it is not solid waste, we are not bothered much about weighing them. Our aim is to clear the roads at the earliest and dump the sand in the nearest open area. Trucks and workers are engaged in doing that as fast as possible to avoid inconvenience to the public, especially motorists, and avoid accidents," he explained.
A few trees were uprooted in different parts of the emirate while many boards were blown away by the strong winds. These were also cleared from the streets by the municipal workers.
Officials said the Dubai Municipality has an effective plan to deal with any such sudden changes in weather conditions. Al Saifaie said extra care is taken to ensure the safety of the workers involved in clean-up operations in bad weather conditions. He and other senior officials are personally monitoring the clean-up operations after the storm and their operations continued even on Monday.
Residents can report weather-related complaints to the municipality through its toll-free customer care number 800900.
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