Dubai Municipality is clamping down heavily on cigarette smokers with the aim of ensuring and maintaining the cleanliness of Dubai’s streets and public areas.
Smokers caught by municipality officials discarding cigarettes in non designated areas face a fine of Dhs 500. The fines are set to increase for persistent offenders, doubling the second time and tripling the third time they are caught.
A campaign has been launched by the municipality to raise awareness of the fine and warn smokers of the penalties if caught. These penalties do not only apply to smokers, with people littering the streets with any kind of waste also liable to be fined, whether they are walking or driving and discarding waste from their cars.
Almost 3,000 fines were issues in 2016 by municipality inspectors to people discarding their litter on streets and pavements. The municipality has 154 inspectors patrolling areas of Dubai and authorised to give fines to violators.