DUBAI // Residents will soon be able to tell how much water and electricity they have consumed and resolve issues within seconds, according to the chief executive of Dubai’s Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa).
Saeed Al Tayer said the smart meter would offer valuable and efficient real-time information to customers.
“If you have a technical problem with your electricity, you can have someone solve it within seconds,” he said during a talk on UAE Smart Cities Outlook at the Government Summit on Wednesday. “The objective is to have real-time maintenance and problem-solving but, for now, what we want is to have rational consumption of energy.”
A communications network that connects the distribution part of service directly to the consumer is required.
“We have 120,000 meters that were linked to the network two months ago,” Mr Al Tayer said. “We need to link to modern systems and household appliances to reduce our losses in electricity transmission and distribution networks as it will preserve our environment and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Our losses are down to 3.5 per cent, one of the best percentages worldwide, compared with 6 or 7 per cent in the US.” He said the new meter would help the company and residents by spelling out the use of energy.
“This is an important aspect,” he said. “Today, a person can know exactly his consumption and carbon footprint that is consumed and this can give him a further incentive to improve efficiency.”
Dewa is also aiming to reduce the time of interrupted water supply to customers from four minutes to two.
“The four-minute mark was an improvement on last year and a 16-minute improvement compared to the world average,” he said. “We have performance indicators, that are some of the best worldwide. Energy is the main pillar for any economy – if you don’t have a high and efficient power, electricity and energy sector, you cannot advance. So we are focusing on reducing from that number.”
He said performance was constantly measured to ensure good planning.
“We hope to ensure sustainable resources for electricity,” Mr Al Tayer said. “We have to have a diversified source of power, especially by focusing on nuclear, renewables, clean and solar energy. We cannot just depend on one source of energy.”
Dewa plans to link households to solar panel grids, which will also reduce some residents’ energy bills.
“Dewa will buy the electricity surpluses from the consumer,” he said. “So we are ready to buy this surplus of power and I think it will contribute to increasing the share of renewable energy. We saw in our studies that the price of solar energy should be competitive by 2020 and we have seen that, today, the price of solar energy is even less.”
By 2030, Dewa aims to reduce energy consumption by 30 per cent.
“There has been progress but this does not mean we will reduce demands on projects,” he said, citing one specifically that aims to rehabilitate 30,000 houses in Dubai and turn them into smart houses.
“It isn’t an easy task so we have started to create proper legislations for that.
“We also need service companies that are specialised and capable of transforming houses into smart houses, in lighting and automation of systems inside the house. Ultimately, the smart government objective is to ensure citizens’ happiness through efficiency, uninterrupted services and reliable information to improve their quality of life.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
