NBK Adopts Recommendations on Electricity and Water Services
Early warning system to monitor the risk of rain 5 hours before it occurs
The Council recommended expanding the application of sustainable development standards in residential projects and federal buildings. From the source
Suhail Al-Mazroughi: "The ministry is studying the possibility of establishing a crisis and emergency fund."
Shatha Al Naqbi. From the source
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The Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Eng. Suhail Al Mazrouei, revealed that the ministry is currently working on launching an early and advanced warning system, which is linked to an integrated system of modern and advanced devices capable of monitoring and analyzing rainfall rates, especially in dam areas, and then giving the concerned authorities expectations about the climatic situation and the updates that may occur five hours in advance, which alerts the people of the dangers that may beset them during the next five hours, thus increasing the response time and moving them to more locations Amana, pointing out that the ministry is continuing with the concerned authorities to remove rain damage in the eastern region.
This came in response to a question by a member of the Federal National Council, Shatha Al-Naqbi, about the damage caused to the Eastern Province due to the recent depression, during its sixth session of its fourth session of the 17th legislative term, which was held under the chairmanship of Council Speaker Saqr Ghobash.
Al Mazrouei stated that there are many development projects on the ministry's agenda that aim to raise the state's readiness to deal with heavy rainfall and the accompanying floods, which contributes to reducing the material losses that may cause them.
He added that the depression that the country was exposed to, recently, is an exceptional situation that these areas have not witnessed since the past 40 years, as the intensity of rain in some areas reached more than 230 millimeters, while these areas absorb an average rainfall of 40 millimeters, according to design, and the level of rainfall reached about 10 times its average in the previous 10 years.
He explained that the ministry will discuss with other concerned authorities the proposals submitted by members, including studying the possibility of establishing a crisis and emergency fund, noting at the same time that the establishment of this fund requires contributions from several bodies, including the government and local authorities.
He continued: «The ministry is currently in charge of the management and supervision of 103 dams and water channels, and as a result of the situation that the state was exposed to last year, it was decided to strengthen the dam system and use some modern technologies, including advanced cameras in dams that provide early warning».
Al Mazrouei noted that the ministry has started implementing initiatives aimed at reducing the financial burden of housing on citizens wishing to obtain banking facilities, including raising the percentage of monthly deductions for those wishing to obtain banking facilities from 50 to 60% of their salaries.
Al Mazrouei said that the ministry reached an agreement with local banks to grant citizens the right to increase the monthly deduction rates from 50 to 60% of the total monthly salary, which contributes to speeding up and shortening the time period scheduled for repaying the bank loan.
He stated that the monthly deductions related to citizens' housing loans that the government takes monthly are low and do not constitute a burden on citizens, especially since they do not exceed 16% of the total monthly salary.
During its session yesterday, the Federal National Council adopted a number of recommendations during the discussion of the government's policy on the sustainability of electricity and water services, in which it called for expanding the application of sustainable development standards in residential projects and federal buildings in electricity and water services to achieve the sustainable development goals for 2030 in the country.
The Council's recommendations on the subject stressed the importance of reviewing policies to ensure the quality of materials used in water network systems with the development of controls related to specifications and standards, developing monthly bill segments for consumers to reduce financial burdens, taking practices applied in other entities on providing prepaid service in the consumer's account balance, and using smart services that expose the consumer to his average consumption of energy and water periodically and prevent avoiding paying bills in high amounts, through the installation of smart meters.
In response to a question by member Sabreen Hassan Al Yamahi about the rise in oil prices, Al Mazrouei said: "The reasons for the rise in oil prices witnessed last year are due to the war that took place in Ukraine, which resulted in an embargo on a large part of the oil and resulted in a rise in crude oil prices, especially to the seventh month of last year, after that we witnessed a decline thanks to the efforts of the OPEC alliance and prices returned to their previous state before the crisis with the continuation of the existence of the crisis."
He stressed that the leadership and the government decided to allocate additional support for low-income people, and this support was provided by the Ministry of Community Development and included several areas, and a package of assistance was developed for low-income people, and the ministry studied what is related to the part of diesel and fuel and its impact and was calculated within this package, and the ministry does not determine the price, but the government has developed a pricing mechanism that depends on not losing the company and at the same time the distribution companies do not get additional profits, which is a fixed percentage in the companies' profits, The state has become a measure of the quality of fuel distribution services, and an equation has been developed that does not affect the citizen and does not lose companies.
He said: «The UAE, thanks to its leadership, is moving towards a transformative plan towards sustainable transport, especially in this year, which is the year of sustainability, and the stimulus needs to have a competitive vehicle charging tariff, and the cost of a home charger is competitive, and we launched an alliance in cooperation with car manufacturers that the country has fast chargers and these will spread and we have a program that we are working on», adding that the UAE is the most country in the region that has electric chargers, and many options will be provided to the consumer, stressing that the process of development in infrastructure Continuous and we will not stand.
Member Shatha Saeed Al-Naqbi asked a question about «the paths of the flow of valleys in the east coast» and Al-Mazrouei replied: «What happened in the tropical situation that the state was exposed to last year is an exceptional situation that these areas have not seen in the last 40 years, and a committee was formed from the local government under my chairmanship and the committee submitted a report on the reasons, including the intensity of rain, which reached in some areas to 231 mm, and the average is not more than 30 mm, and this is exceptional, and a water drainage study was done before That it reaches the cities, and that the local emirate creates a drainage network, and this is the business of the emirate and its local authorities."
He added: «Work is underway to strengthen the dam system, and the use of some modern technologies, where an early warning has been developed up to five hours before the flow of the valley, and the study is underway to establish new channels to conserve water and not reach cities, but the congestion of areas that lead to the city and the flow of the valley to the sea, require greater cooperation from localities, and everyone is interested and is being discussed according to an integrated committee of all parties».
He continued: «If we look at these housing, we find that they are located in the valley stream, it is difficult to protect these housing, but this is in light of the limited land for the localities, and some housing has been replaced, and we are working in the ministry to address the problem before reaching the valley flow by expanding the dam lake».
He stated that some of the points mentioned by the member are being worked on, including the launch of early warning and linking it to modern systems, the Crisis and Emergency Fund, and the ministry is part of the national effort to discuss different scenarios and work on a national plan to deal with these events, and these efforts are ongoing and it is the responsibility of the authority, which coordinates with all concerned authorities to deal with any accidents, including rain.
Shatha Al-Naqib mentioned several negatives resulting from these phenomena, and said: «Livestock and plants have been damaged, homes have been damaged, and their owners have suffered significant material losses, and also vehicles have been damaged and become unusable, and there are also problems with insurance companies, and also streets have been damaged and some of them have been closed and alternative streets have been identified and this has burdens on the population, and these losses may affect people with limited income».
Al-Naqbi asked about the ministry's communication with these families and listening to their problems, and whether it cooperated directly with the concerned authorities responsible, to facilitate citizens' cooperation with these authorities, such as insurance companies, and did the ministry cooperate with other authorities to facilitate the process of home maintenance and compensate the owners of damaged vehicles?
While member Naema Abdullah Al-Sharhan asked the minister about the readiness of the infrastructure in the event of heavy rainfall, Al-Mazrouei replied: «A representative committee was formed from the localities and the concerned agencies, and a report was prepared to find out the causes of the damage, as the level of rainfall was more than 10 times the normal level during the previous 10 years, and one of the causes of the great damage is construction in the valley streams, which poses a challenge, and the ministry's role is focused on trying to early warning, obtaining sufficient land from localities and adding barriers. The role of localities is to create drainage networks and this is very important, and the complementarity of roles is what will enhance the security of these areas."
He pointed out that what happened is a phenomenon that has not happened for 40 years in the volume of water that descended on the Emirate of Fujairah, but the ministry's work is complementary in the field of infrastructure, and we do not have absolute powers in infrastructure and cooperation is underway with localities on mechanisms to deal with damage to infrastructure, stressing that the role of the Council is complementary to the role of the government and we will transfer all these observations to the concerned authorities, whether federal or local, adding that a Supreme Council for Structure has been established. Infrastructure and housing and its purpose is joint planning, and work on a converging infrastructure in the country.
• "Initiatives aimed at reducing the financial burden of housing on citizens wishing to obtain banking facilities."
«Organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation»
The Cabinet approved a draft federal law amending some provisions of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2022 on the organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which includes two articles: First, the phrase Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation shall be replaced by the phrase Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the phrase Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation shall be replaced by the phrase Minister of Foreign Affairs, wherever they appear in the title or texts of the decree.