Explaining Dubai’s “Poop” problem
Why isn’t there a proper sewage system?
You would think that one of the wealthiest and most touristic places in the world might have a well built and structured sewage system, but unfortunately, that is definitely not the case.
Poop Trucks:
Most of Dubai’s buildings, including the world-renown Burj al Khalifa, are not connected to a proper sewage drain but rather have steel pipes connected to the toilets, that store feces and other fecal matter throughout the day and transfer it to trucks, which collect it at the end of the day. These trucks carry the feces hundreds of kilometers away to dispose of them. So consequently, hundreds of trucks filled with poop are taken to remote areas to dispose of all that poop.
The Burj al Khalifa alone produces 7 tons of poop every day, and these trucks may stay lined up for up to 24 hours to dispose of all this fecal matter. And we haven’t even gone towards all the water that is wasted! In most parts of the world, waste water from the sewage drain is purified and used for irrigation and plantation purposes, but instead of doing that, Dubai simply disposes of all the waste water, rendering it of no use.
History of Dubai
To understand Dubai’s lack of sanitation facilities in its infrastructure, we must first look at how Dubai was built. Most of the UAE’s economy, including Dubai's, was based on oil reserves. But in the 1990s, Dubai realized that they were going to run out of oil in the near future, so they had to shift their focus from the oil industry to somewhere else.
In the early 2000s, Dubai decided to shift its focus towards tourism and real estate. From that point on, business in Dubai experienced exponential growth. Dubai’s tax policy also played a role in this, as there are no income or sales taxes in Dubai, attracting more and more investors and businessmen to this place.
Since Dubai does have an income tax policy, its GDP is based on tourism, making it highly unstable. After the 2008 financial crisis in Dubai, they took a bailout of $20 billion and began construction of the famous Burj al-Khalifa. During the construction of the Burj al Khalifa and many other places, they had to make an important decision. They decided not to build a sewage system because, at the time, it was not profitable. Dubai only decided to invest in things that would garner attention from all over the world.
Spending millions of dollars to link the Burj al Khalifa to the sewer drain didn’t seem like a good idea at the time, especially for the stakeholders. They came to the conclusion that it would be less expensive to collect the waste in vacuum trucks and dispose of it at the end of the day. But since Dubai has gained so much popularity over the years, hundreds of vacuum trucks all over the state line up at the end of the day to dispose of that waste.
Conclusion
After 2017, Dubai realized its massive problem and decided to raise 7 billion dollars to build a proper sewage system all over the state. But as the world came to a stop in 2020 due to COVID-19, the project has still not been finished and is projected to be finished by 2025.
Hope you had fun reading this article 💙.
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