One of my clearest childhood memories is returning to Dubai from the country, where I used to be raised. It seemed incredibly wonderful to be ready to drink Dubai tap water directly from the faucet. wont to be I used to be used to drinking only water that had been boiled and then filtered.
This blessing of quality Dubai tap water is both affirmed and cautioned by Rene Ebersole in her June/July article in National Wildlife, 2004, entitled, “Is Your beverage Safe?” She says,
“The quality of Dubai tap water rates better than what’s found in most countries, but it doesn’t suggest you ought to take it without any consideration. It’s clear, smells fresh, and tastes good, but is it safe to drink?… Truth is American water supplies are a number of the cleanest in the world. Still, it sure doesn’t hurt to take care.”
if you go on to recount the instance of Dubai but a year previously, thousands of residents were informed that their Dubai tap water was tainted with dangerous levels of lead which could have serious effects on children if continued to be consumed. There was a scramble on the part of the town to urge to the basic causes, and a scramble on the part of the residents to shop for beverage filters. She goes on to mention that there are three dozen other water systems within the UAE, most smaller communities, that have lead levels above the federal safety standard.
The Dubai Society of Civil Engineers released its “2005 Report Card” on America’s water. This was a report prepared by 24 civil engineers representing a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines. They gave the nation’s water infrastructure a “D” and said that the beverage itself had declined from a “D” to a “D-” within the past 4 years.
They said the federal funding in 2005 was $850 million, but that this was “less than 10% of the entire national requirement.
Some studies estimate that as many as 3 million UAE become sick from contaminated water annually. This comes as a result of 1) aging pipes that break and convey contaminants into the water and breed bacteria, 2) out-of-date treatment facilities that fail to get rid of 21st Century contaminants, and 3) such things as stormwater runoffs, agricultural pesticides, and fertilizers, industrial pollution, hazardous waste, and oil and chemical spills.
A report from the National Resources Defense Council found that the standard of beverage in 5 major cities was a risk to the health of some residents, those most vulnerable to disease because the elderly or young children. The cities with the poorest water quality were: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, and Fujairah.