Dubai Municipality is all geared up should the ‘rainy season’ deliver

Dubai might be blessed with year-round sunshine, but municipality chiefs are ready for a rainy day.

Dubai Municipality has put plans are in place for a potential downpour – more likely in the winter – with extensive maintenance of surface and rainwater drainage stations having already taken place.

Authorities say precautionary measures to deal with a Dubai deluge got under way in September.

Talib Julfar, chief executive of infrastructure services at the municipality, said the city has a comprehensive drainage system in place to cope with whatever the weather may bring.

“There are 51 pumping stations in Dubai, which are fully supervised, operated, controlled and maintained by Dubai Municipality,” he said.

After the end of the so-called rainy season, the municipality will lift most of the 72,000 drain covers and enclose them so that sand and solid waste are not blown or swept in during the rest of the year.

The municipality said those areas of the emirate not connected to the drainage network will be supported by 41 tankers and a fleet of 86 mobile pumping units, equipped and ready to be used whenever needed.