Water pools at the entrance of Rosary School in the Muwaileh area of Sharjah. Salam Al Amir / The National
Water pools at the entrance of Rosary School in the Muwaileh area of Sharjah. Salam Al Amir / The National

Rain causes flooding in Sharjah as muddy pools block school entrances



SHARJAH // Parents and children waded through muddy water and flooded car parks to reach school on Tuesday as rain lashed much of the country.

Water pooled at the entrances and a lack of drainage systems left water standing for hours.

In the Muwaileh area of Sharjah, muddied parents struggled to carry their children to classes.

“I usually park my car opposite the school due to the traffic and I cross the road. But the moment I got out of the car, I found myself standing in mud, my shoes and my trousers were both soaked,” said Jordanian Shireen Al Younis, 34, who was dropping her son and daughter at Rosary School.

Elham Tarkawi, a Lebanese mother of two, said parents helped each other reach the entrance.

“After I dropped off my children, I helped some mothers struggle to get their kids across 200 metres of mud,” said the 38-year-old.

Ahmed Shahin, 40, from Syria, said the area around his children’s school turns into a swamp each time it rains.

“I spoke to my school management and suggested that they collect Dh50 from each parent, and I assure you, parents would be happy to participate in solving this irritating problem,” he said.

Aidah Omar, 38, said she returned home to change her clothes after dropping her daughter off in grade one.

“It’s bad enough that the roads are all jammed, now I have to drive at least 30 minutes to go back home and change my clothes, look at me, how can I go like this to work,” said Ms Aidah.

Sister Sawsan Badr, Principal of Rosary School, said the area in front of their school has been levelled to alleviate the problem.

“We have done it twice at our expense to ease the burden on our pupils and their parents. We have requested several times from the authorities to fix this problem and we will push again for a solution,” she said.

Nasreen Banu, Principal of Gulf Asian English School, also urged the Sharjah authorities to act after a long winter of adverse weather.

“This area needs a better water drainage system, as soon as it rains the water forms pools, and the traffic piles up and causes pupils to be late to their classes.

“We will contact the authorities to find a solution for this problem, which is continuous during the rainy season,” she said.

A spokesman from Sharjah Municipality said emergency teams and water pumps were deployed on Tuesday to clear flooded roads across the emirate.

“As for sandy areas and roads, the municipality re-levels those areas after the rainy season, in all residential and commercial areas of the emirate,” he said.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”