18 February 2008

Expats Pay, Emiratis Play

DEWA (Dubai Electric and Water Authority) has announced they will raise rates on heavy consumers of water and electricity as a means to encourage conservation. (DEWA is that series of smoky stacks you can see between Jumeirah Beach and Jebel Ali Port)

The twist is that this rate increase does not apply to Emiratis. And one can assume it won't apply to the hundreds of miles of irrigation tubing needed to keep green spaces green. Sheikh Mo is green, as long as he doesn't have to suffer any privations.

I see this as the first canary to fall and is an indicator that the infrastructure cannot handle the exponential growth in construction that is taking place. Nature may abhore a vacuum, but she allows abhors exponential growth. The dream is starting to implode.

No comments: