Dubai breathes cleaner air
Thousands of commuters ditch their cars on DM’s Car Free Day yesterday
dubai — Dubai breathed cleaner air on Sunday as tens of thousands of commuters “ditched” their cars in solidarity with the 7th Car Free Day organised by the Dubai Municipality.
Kicking off the eco-drive, heads of various government departments joined the Director General of Dubai Municipality Hussain Nasser Lootah for a Metro ride from the Etisalat Metro station to the Union Metro Station close to the municipality’s headquarters.
A yoga session, a painting exhibition and an exhibition of electric and hybrid cars and smart bikes were held as part of the grand launch of the event near the Union Metro Station.
“We want people to understand the requirements for sustainability,” he told reporters after a tour of the exhibition, “Lootah said.
“Dubai wants to be a sustainable city. The huge number of cars here requires us to have alternative ideas for transportation and use cars that run on electricity or solar energy,” he said, encouraging residents to reduce the use of cars and carbon emission caused by gasoline usage.
Tasnim Salem Al Falasi, head of Environmental Awareness Section told Khaleej Times that employees of over 1,000 entities in Dubai joined the drive to go car free for the day.
“The registration of participating entities crossed the anticipated figure of 1,000. I’m sure tens of thousands of cars have been ditched by the participating em- ployees from these entities.”
Last year, nearly 30,000 individuals from over 300 organisations avoided using personal vehicles to reach work and used environmental friendly transportation compared to only 1,000 people from the Dubai Municipality taking part in the inaugural event in 2010.
The total figure of the cars that stayed off the roads on Sunday will be announced later, Al Falasi said, adding that the municipality is recording the change in air quality due to the initiative. “As many as 14 stations across Dubai, including a portable one at the closed parking lot of the municipality, will record the air quality and help us know the reduction in carbon emission,” said Al Falasi.
Over the years, Car-Free Day has already had a significant impact on the environment, resulting an estimated reduction of 140 tonnes of CO2 emissions, as fuel consumption dropped to 147,000 litres, since the launch of the campaign in 2010. “It’s nice to see the blue skies here today and very little particulate matter,” said Fahad Hareb, the director of the Air Quality Department at the newly renamed Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
He rebuffed a World Bank report last year on bad air quality in the country, saying it was based on data collected in 1995. He said the ministry is coming up with a new Air Quality Index (AQI) for the UAE.