On November 10, 2004, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Mohamed Al Sharqi, the Ruler of Fujairah, handed down the Law on Wastewater Treatment, which sets out the legal framework for regulation of the wastewater treatment sector. The Wastewater Law-Local Order No.1 encompasses the relevant sections of the Federal Environmental Law 24/1999 for the Protection of Environment and its Development, and associated Environmental Standards and Guidelines. Significantly, the law incorporates the provisions of UAE Law Number 40 on the Protection and Development of the Environment.
This law details the provisions for the management of the wastewater treatment sector in Fujairah. It provides standards for the design, construction, operation, ownership, maintenance, and expansion of the wastewater treatment system. The law also covers the rights granted to TANQIA and its obligations, the undertakings of the Government, and customer rights and obligations, service charges, connection charges and penalties.
The law provisions introduced by the Government of Fujairah for regulating the sector include standards for the design of the system, standards of effluent and sludge, and environmental standards for the design, construction, operation, and expansion of the system. The law also provides for the continued monitoring of the quality of influent and effluent. The law provides for the protection of TANQIA’s wastewater treatment system by empowering the Company to insist on the pre-treatment of certain industrial wastewater to comply with the standards of influent for which the system was designed. The Company is given the full right of refusal to accept into its network any non-compliant industrial influent.
