Emirate cracks down on shisha, BBQ in public places.

Although the pleasant weather these days is being thoroughly enjoyed by residents, the Sharjah Municipality has a reason to worry. The municipality officials said a lot off residents preferred to smoke shisha and do barbecue in parks and green areas in various parts of the city which is destroying and affecting the environment adversely.

In order to curb such illegal practice, the municipality recently issued fines for violators, said Faisal Al Mulla, director of the city monitoring department at Sharjah municipality.

He said that the municipality has installed 55 instruction signboards in parks and green areas specifying that smoking shisha and doing barbecue are not allowed in the areas.

"Despite intensified awareness and instruction signboards people ignore and violate the rules particularly during this time of the year. In 2015, the municipality fined 330 violators for Dh500 each," he said.

The practice would affect the environment and destroy the grass and the trees, as the carbon emanated from the charcoal used in barbecue is hazardous to public health. Many residents even dump the waste of the charcoals in the grass and sand without knowing the negative affect they are causing to environment. The municipality has allowed the barbecue in certain parks where it has provided special designated areas to for grilling and barbecue activities. They are also provided proper places to dump the used charcoals without affecting environment. The municipality said it has received several complaints from residents of buildings near the beaches and corniches, regarding shisha smoking at these areas.

The municipality inspectors in 2015 issued fines of 44 people for smoking shisha on beaches and corniches." In 2008, the Sharjah government had banned all kinds of smoking in public areas including smoking of shisha in order to transform the emirate into a non-smoking emirate,"

Ibrahim Al Hosany, Head of the inspection section at city monitoring department, said due to the pleasant weather these violations are expected to increase during 2016. In order to tackle this negative practice, the municipality has intensified patrolling to keep a check on such on the practices and deployed inspectors who work in two shifts driving around beach areas, parks and green areas to control the violations.

The inspectors also do the rounds on Fridays and other public holidays in all residential parks and green areas to ensure residents are following the regulations.

The inspectors will be slap a fine of Dh500 on anyone found doing barbecue or shisha and the fine will be doubled if violation is repeated.

He urged public to call 993 to report any of these violations or any kind of illegal practices that adversely affect the public health and environment. afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

Call 993

To report any illegal practice that adversely affects public health and the environment.