DOHA: A rising number of elected civic representatives want the government to clamp down on the mushrooming villas and traditional Arabic houses that are partitioned to make smaller residential units for rental income in flagrant violation of the country’s laws.
These villas have originally been built to accommodate single families but they are partitioned in a dangerous way and without official approvals to house several families.
The members are highly critical of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning and utility distributor, Kahramaa, for turning a blind eye to what they say is a very dangerous trend.
So many families are living in smaller units carved out illegally and without official permissions and the necessary engineering expertise in these villas and traditional Arabic houses without realising they are sitting on a ticking time bomb, say civic representatives.
“There are some 40 to 60 such houses in my constituency, Madinat Khalifa South. Plywood has been used for partitioning these structures, aside from some inflammable materials. These homes are designed for single families but several families occupy them,” said Mohamed Shaheen Al Atiq, a member of the Central Municipal Council (CMC).
He told local Arabic daily Al Raya that he had raised the issue not only with the authorities concerned but also in the CMC but to no avail.
“I recall with horror how an old house in my area collapsed sometime ago killing a labourer who was engaged in work on an adjacent plot of land.”
Al Atiq said what surprises him is how Kahramaa can provide utility connections to such houses that have been illegally partitioned and are dangerous.
He said he had a talk with a senior civic official earlier and the latter told him that there was no law to stop such encroachments and illegal partitioning.
Another CMC member, Mubarak Fraish, said that the most effective way to stop such irregularities was to make it mandatory for rent agreements of all residential units to be registered with the municipality concerned.
“This way, at least the authorities would be in the know of things and can monitor the residential units,” said Fraish. He added that the load on electricity had gone up at least 10 times due to this practice.
Another CMC member, Ahmed Al Shaeeb, said that a recent trend had started whereby people were also using space in some partitioned villas as makeshift warehouses to store foodstuff and inflammable materials, among other things.
“We should always bear in mind that families mostly live in such accommodations and they face huge risks to their lives,” said Al Sheeb.
The Peninsula
