Too fast, too furious

Too fast, too furious

Municipal decisions in the UAE, like the Abu Dhabi villa demolitions, are taken and enforced with ridiculously commendable speed but such hastiness can also inconvenience many residents.

March 27, 2011 4:36 by Eva Fernandes

Love UAE as we may, what wouldn’t Kipp give for some better urban planning? Take for instance the small patch of pavement in front of Kipp’s quarters that has been dug up and repaved more than three times in a month not long ago. The first group came to lay cables for the internet, the next for electricity and the last, well, we are not quite sure. Needless to say, what could have been a joint effort from all government owned agencies caused much disturbance to residents and cost Kipp much needed sleep, not to mention the costs of digging up the same area three times.

But what has happened to cause Kipp to grumble in such an uncharacteristically Kipp way? The villa demolitions in Abu Dhabi, of course.

The National reports on Abu Dhabi municipality’s most recent crackdown on illegal partitions in villas. It also reported on how it is often only the villa owner who is informed by the municipality of the building violations and not the tenants: so that often when the municipality comes to demolish the illegal partitions and cut the power (which is what they do in the event of a violations) tenants are literally left in the dark.

The tenants of an eight-flat villa near 25th Street and Muroor Road told The National that they had found a notice stating that the electricity would be turned off that very night, and within a week the municipality had torn down all of the partitions and the residents were forced to leave.

Of course the Abu Dhabi government is completely justified in cracking down on unhygienic and unsafe accommodation in the city and Kipp is glad they do it. What Kipp wants to understand is the rather abrupt haphazard manner of executing plans.

It is ironical, that while people in other countries usual complaints their municipalities are far too slowly and far too bureaucratically, in the UAE it is the exact opposite.

Municipal decisions are taken, at what seems to the casual observer, rather randomly enforced with ridiculous speed—which is excellent, when you think of the flower beds and rock gardens they create in an instant and maintain all year round, but not quite as excellent when you consider the hoards of people left looking for a roof over the heads due to their hastiness.

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Tags: UAE municipality, UAE municipality Abu Dhabi demolition, UAE municipality villa demolition, UAE municipality villas