Industrial vehicles using wrong road frustrate residents

Sewage tankers and lorries are using a restricted route near a residential complex in Dubai as a short cut to a labour camp.

DUBAI // Sewage tankers and lorries are using a restricted route near a residential complex as a short cut to a labour camp, despite attempts by authorities to curb the practice. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has posted two signs warning lorry and tanker drivers to use an alternate, albeit longer, route to the camp, following numerous complaints from a resident of the Al Muntazah complex, which is adjacent to a group of churches and near Jebel Ali Village.

However, the signs have not deterred many drivers, whose only other option for reaching the labour camp, which was built about two years ago, is along a narrow, bumpy sand track that takes a circuitous route to the site. The lorries pass just metres from the complex walls day and night, causing them to shake and making sleep difficult, residents say. They also complained of respiratory problems, which they said were the result of a constant barrage of fine dust the heavy vehicles left in their wake, coating the villas, gardens, vehicles and air conditioners.

"If you sit outside for longer than a few minutes, you get headaches and you feel it in your throat," said Lesley, a resident who has lived at the complex with her husband for 10 years. "It's not much better to be inside, because you have to have your air conditioning on and the dust filters into the house," she said. "I've woken up not being able to breathe. It's quite frightening. We can never get a full night's sleep because of the noise."

Kim Ward, 41, from South Africa, who has lived at the complex for the past 18 months, said the dust and sand was a "constant nightmare". "The other effect we have noticed is the allergies our son has picked up. Since April, he has been surviving on antihistamine just to get through a normal day at school with constant sneezing and nose blowing." Parents were also concerned that students attending Jebel Ali Primary School would be dropped off along the road shared by heavy vehicle traffic, Mrs Ward said.

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said his son, 12, could no longer play outside because the dust was affecting his asthma. Residents want a new access road built for the heavy vehicles and buses that transport the labourers. A group of churches, established in the area about seven years ago, were also affected by the unauthorised use of the road. Sona Kazanjian, an administrator with Dubai Evangelical Church Centre, said the traffic jams were frequent during some Friday services, when parishioners had to share the area with the heavy vehicles.

She welcomed the signs warning drivers not to use the track running near the church. "We feel [the RTA] have started to improve the situation and we are hoping they will do more." An RTA employee who has visited the site and was aware of the complaints said yesterday that the RTA would photograph the area today to "see how we can help". The authority would also check the condition of the access route meant for the lorries and decide whether the signs should to be moved or if more were needed, said the man, who asked that his name be withheld.

The RTA might also contact police to request more enforcement in the area, he said. Traffic police visited the area three times in one week this month, Lesley said. On their last trip, police stopped some drivers to warn them but told her they could not afford to station an officer in the area. Major Faisal Essa, from the traffic police, asked residents to be patient, noting the camp was temporary.

"We are asking the resident people over there just to sacrifice a little bit. So much development is going on. We cannot stop the vehicles working nowadays." Contractors in the nearby camp include Al Naboodah Engineering, Al Huda Contracting and Target Engineering Construction Company. Mohamed Afzal, a supervisor for Al Huda Contracting, said bus drivers were using the track because the alternate route was unsuitable for buses.

He said he had spoken with other camp supervisors about making a better path to the camp, but his idea had been dismissed because "it is not a permanent camp". [e-mail]