AIR POLLUTION IN UAE

Air Pollution in UAE

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AIR POLLUTION IN UAE

UAE is a developing country and seeing changes very rapidly and the government is keen

to give their people all the available resources that are present in the world and for that, they are

striving very hard and making both ends meets. But in the race of technology and modernization,

UAE has forgotten that to fulfill their dreams and to convert their country into a business and

tourist hub what the gain and what they lost? I think they realized it but the time was gone and

there is no way back to be there. Not talking about the technology or against the advancements in

the technology but these latest developments is done by damaging the natural resources have

caused. There was a huge increase in the population has noticed and with the increase in

population and the energy demand rises. Due to high in population and a center for trade people

enjoy the luxuries and there is a sudden increase in the use of cars is reported and that caused

additional damage to the nature of UAE. People of UAE have no idea where they are taking their

country and the situation is getting worse every year. Global temperature is observed and many

other causes are also involved like ta lack of the environmental culture in public. Air pollution is

a form of pollution that affects plenty of other things that results in dangerous results. According

to the Director of the environment in UAE Ahmad Al Hashemi

“It is important that we keep our waters clean to ensure that Abu Dhabi’s threatened

species, including our turtles, dugongs and dolphins continue to thrive in these waters. I would

like to thank all our partners who supported this initiative, which builds on our founding father’s

legacy of environmental protection and preservation.”

In the year 2018 huge amount of garbage was found in the UAE Sea and this is estimated

to be around 1300 kg of waste that was lifted from the sea bed. Other than that around 5000 kg

or marine waste was present there and approximately 3500 kg of banned fishing nests was also

present in the sea. The operation was carried out by the Abu Dhabi environmental and protection
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organization with the help of many other volunteers who are willing to protect the earth and safe

and clean the environment and air pollution from Abu Dhabi. There are air pollution issues with

the UAE and that is a new thing actually and due to this pollution, this is said to be the country

“With the world’s worst air” by the World Bank Annual report [ CITATION JLe15 \l 1033 ]. When it

comes to the air pollution UAE is said to be worst in air pollution as compared to China and

India. It is said that the UAE air contains the 80 micrograms of the particles per cubic meter that

are causing damage to the air and infecting nature. This caused the smog in many parts of the

UAE that is very harmful to the people and also for the country’s future. This is a serious issue

and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible otherwise this will be a big issue for the future

generations and they won’t enjoy the UAE as it is now.

According to the reports of the institutes that are monitoring air pollution all over the

world that the environmental issues in the UAE have put life threats to the people living and

breathing the polluted air. The records have shown that the air pollution is causing around 6.5

million people deaths every year that are either directly or indirectly affected by the air pollution

and causing severe health issues like cardiac, lungs cancer, skin allergies and many other

issues[ CITATION Cli20 \l 1033 ]. This is going to be a massive issue if not controlled in time and

people will continue to die and their business is affected by air pollution. UAE government and

ministry of the environment have presented a UAE national vision for the UAE 2021. There will

be campaigns and a proper environmental education that will teach the students and children to

take care of their health and also the environment for a healthy and happy tomorrow. This could

not be possible alone by the government people of UAE should also step forward to realize and

bring some changes in their lifestyles that will help in minimizing the air pollution and saving the

environment.
AIR POLLUTION IN UAE

The past year 2019, was the year of environment education and awareness year as the

UAE is badly chocked with the air pollution issues and the major reason is the increase in the

number of cars running on the road all day and the fumes emitting out of their exhaust has

caused the biggest damage to the environment and Ozone layer. According to the satellite data

received in last year between the months of June to August declared that the country which was

once known as the ‘Green peace” is now into the world to 50 countries where there is the huge

amount of Nitrogen oxide is present. Not only in Dubai but also the other countries like Kuwait,

Baghdad, Lebanon and many other Arabic countries were present that were reported to gradually

going towards the issues related to health and those can cause permanent damage to the health.

Nitrogen oxide is produced by the combustion of fumes in the engine and cause the car running

but the emissions coming out from such cars is the major cause as there were limited industries

that are working in UAE as the majority of the products were imported from other

countries[ CITATION HHW10 \l 1033 ].

Such chemical emissions put some bad effects on human health especially the first thing

that is damaged s the respiratory system which further leads to the lungs deficiency. Asthma and

chronic lungs diseases are becoming really common in the UAE. People mostly suffer these

diseases due to the extensive use of vehicles in the cities[ CITATION CBa15 \l 1033 ]. This issue can

never be controlled if there was some policy regarding the use of cars as this is the main cause

and it will not possible to control this air pollution without limiting the use. Now there are some

global policies and due to the development of car sectors that they are designing the electric-

powered vehicles that consume very less fuel and it was said that the old cars were consuming

more fuels as they give the mileages as high as 12-13 km and the rest is thrown to the air as

emissions. But the latest technology is consuming most of the fuel and give more mileages now
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that is up to 20-22 km/l that means the emissions can be reduced but not stopped. According to

the recent study that has shown that in 2006 the total numbers of cars that were reported only in

UAE were approximately 740,000 and this number was raised to 1.4 million cars just in a decade

in 2014. This number is continuously increasing[ CITATION KAb18 \l 1033 ].

“There’s a relationship between air pollution and lung function and health generally,”

said Dr Bassam Mahboub, a consultant pulmonologist and head of the Emirates Allergy and

Respiratory Society.

This is not the only cause of the air pollution but also the industries that are throwing

smoke to the air and continuously becoming a reason for the air pollution and resulting n the

damage of Ozone layers which results in the climate change of UAE and with the passing years

the temperature is rising and also from past few years unusual rains were also happened in the

UAE and caused heavy floods which results in huge property and monetary damages to the

people of UAE. According to the WHO, the second largest cause of the air pollution after the car

fumes is from the industry and other natural resources like burning of Sulphur content fuels in

Bahrain, Waste burning in Oman and many other issues that need to be controlled.

These issues related to air pollution can be resolved by making rapid changes in the

transport structure in the UAE. There is a dire need of mass transit rabid bus systems or the

metros in UAE which will cause people to shift to those transports medium and this will also

help in minimizing the number of vehicles on road emitting nitrogen oxide to air. By using metro

or the other mediums of mass transport this could be reduced and the issue of air pollution.

Due to recent pandemic attack of Corona (COVID-19), the world has seen a sudden

change in everything as due to this deadly outbreak all the business, industries and transports are
AIR POLLUTION IN UAE

put to stop for the safety measures and precautions. Though this pandemic is dangerous for the

human’s health at the same time this came as a blessing for nature. As the entire world is ceased,

the majority of industries are closed (except food) and people are forced to stay home to stay

safe. This results in repairing of the Ozone and the environment in the UAE[ CITATION AMS20 \l

1033 ]. According to the Dubai Environment Agency in their recent report, they have confirmed

that there is a change is observed during these lockdown days and the air pollution has decreased

in UAE and all over the world. Due to fewer transports on the road and no wastes, this has made

the Ozone to repair and change in temperature and weather is also observed. According to the

official reports by the department, they said that due to the recent safety measure that has been

taken by the government against the COVID-19 all the schools and universities are closed and no

office is operational which is the reason of fewer cars on road emitting no dangerous gasses to

pollute the environment and taking the advantage nature heal itself and that’s an advantage for

the whole UAE.

However, this is not the solution but it has shown the right path to most of the countries

that are suffering from the air pollution like UAE and other to control on these things

permanently to not only improve the air quality or the environment but also to maximize the

health of the people living and breathing in the air. This will help those people to think about

what they were giving to nature comes back to them and when they provided nature with a

healthy and fresh air it regains its original condition. Maybe it takes time in regaining but

definitely if we all make sure to avoid using these things or utilize them to the minimum level

and clean the air so it is possible to give next generation a healthy lifestyle and a clean and pure

air. Such actions towards the saving of nature need commitment and this is the right time to

environmentally educate the people and show the current situation and the air they breathe is also
AIR POLLUTION IN UAE

pure and pollution-free. Everyone has observed this change everyone is witnessed to it that they

have noticed a change in everything but now this is up to them to continue what they were doing

before the lockdown or they continue what they are doing in the lockdown to save the

environment from air pollution. This is our planet our home our countries where everyone lives,

work, enjoy breath and live. Make sure to think seriously on such issues regarding the air

pollutions in UAE and it has damaged a lot already but now we have to make our choice. We

have to plan and act sensibly. This is not only the government responsibility to pass the law but

also to each and every citizen living and working in UAE to stand for a cause, raise their voice,

make the commitment to bring the change in their lives and daily routines, the government

should plan some mass transits and clean and cheap travels for the people who want to perform

their day to day tasks and instead of using cars they prefer to travel using these transports and

make UAE great and pollution-free.

AIR POLLUTION IN UAE

Reference list
Lelieveld, J., Beirle, S., Hörmann, C., Stenchikov, G., & Wagner, T. (2015). Abrupt recent trend changes
in atmospheric nitrogen dioxide over the Middle East. Science advances, 1(7), e1500498.

Willis, H. H., MacDonald Gibson, J., Shih, R. A., Geschwind, S., Olmstead, S., Hu, J., ... & Moore, M.
(2010). Prioritizing environmental health risks in the UAE. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 30(12),
1842-1856.

Barakat-Haddad, C., Zhang, S., Siddiqua, A., & Dghaim, R. (2015). Air quality and respiratory health
among adolescents from the United Arab Emirates. Journal of environmental and public health, 2015.

Shrestha, A. M., Shrestha, U. B., Sharma, R., Bhattarai, S., Tran, H. N. T., & Rupakheti, M. (2020).
Lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic reduces air pollution in cities worldwide.

Abdullah, K. (2018, November). Applying Data Mining Techniques to Ground Level Ozone (O3) Data in
UAE: A Case Study. In Intelligent Computing: Proceedings of the 2018 Computing Conference (Vol. 1, p.
319). Springer.