Dubai Municipality collected 720 tons of solid waste debris and nearly 900 tons of sand as strong winds hit the city on the weekend, a top official said.

The rainfall had ranged from light to medium (3 – 6 millimeters), but some parts of the city recorded 12 millimeters of rain accompanied by thunderstorms after midnight.

As per the statistics available from the Municipality Call Center, it received more than 750 calls from public on Friday for reporting several issues.

The municipality’s agricultural maintenance teams removed the fallen trees, while the waste management teams began collecting pieces of solid debris of all kinds from all areas of the city.

“All those things that were flown on the roads and squares resulting from storms were lifted, in addition to cleaning the remnants of traffic accidents. Our emergency teams equipped with all tools and safety measures cleared storm water pools and removed the sand. They were provided all mechanisms and equipment necessary to remove the effects of sand drifts, as labourers worked over three shifts and storm water clusters were cleared from the main roads and the interior roads,” said Julfar.

He added that the general storm water network covers most areas of urban Dubai, and the readiness programmes included equipping 55 movable pumps and 42 tanks to serve areas not connected to the public network.

The storms caused the crane crash from one of the towers of Sheikh Zayed Road, as well as the destruction of many metal sheets used for the protection of construction sites, and blowing out of wooden pieces and boards, which were scattered in many places.

Dubai Municipality had set up a prepared programme for the rainy season as these preparations began a few months ago.

The programme included cleaning of 72,000 drainages, the 195,000 meter long main pipelines for rain water, in addition to an intensive maintenance programme for the 59 storm water drainage stations that are distributed geographically throughout the city. As an inevitable result of the above, the general storm water network had a good capacity to absorb water easily.

Julfar urged all residents of Dubai contact the Call Centre at Dubai Municipality on the toll-free number 800900 for any environment complaints.