Media

• To create an ideal family atmosphere to enjoy public sites and facilities

• Stage One will cover Seeb beach, then to cover other areas.

As part of the endeavour to ensure a better outdoor environment for citizens, residents, and visitors of public sites, and to strengthen the community role with the municipality, H.E Ahmed bin Muhammed al-Humaidi, president of Muscat Municipality, signed today (Sunday) an agreement with the Security and Safety Services establishment on the cooperation to provide oversight functions on beaches and public facilities belonging to the municipality. The agreement was signed today at the Municipality headquarter by both H.E Ahmed al-Humaidi on behalf of Muscat Municipality and the retired Brigadier General Saeed bin Sulaiman al-Asimi, CEO of the Security and Safety Services, on behalf of the establishment.

The arrangement intends to monitor behaviors that may harm the public health, environmental safety, and stems from the local order no. (32/97) on the protection of public facilities belonging to Muscat Municipality issued by the royal decree no(8/92). The agreement stipulates that the Security and Safety services will provide personnel entrusted to carry out oversight functions on a daily basis to the sea-front in Seeb and its facilities, or any other sites determined by the municipality. The functions will be carried out in the morning and evening, and the work hours will be doubled on weekends.

The intended efforts will monitor the most prominent phenomena plaguing municipal efforts such as; preventing littering and dumping waste in places not designated for this purpose, spitting, tampering with garbage containers, using vehicles and bicycles on beaches, lighting fires, grilling on greeneries, dog and animal control, leaving children unattended, camping violations, and preventing individuals to visit beaches during unsafe weather conditions, and any actions that may damage trees and plantings, or cause inconvenience to visitors, or violates the public decency, or any phenomena determined by the municipality.

According to the agreement, the municipality shall train the Security and Safety personnel with the mechanism for monitoring and documenting municipal violations, plus the coordination between the municipality employees authorized by the judicial seizure and the staff of security and safety assigned to monitor the site to control violators and to issue fines; in case the violators do not respond to the directions of security personnel and eliminate the causes of the violation.

Statement:

His Excellency Ahmed Al-Humaidi confirmed in a special statement to the Oman News Agency that this agreement is the first of its kind to benefit from the security and safety services in the field of beach monitoring and protection of public facilities for a renewable period of one year, and as a first stage; “we are targeting Sur Al-Hadid area in Seeb Beach, as it is a vital and active site throughout the day, especially in holidays, the site suffers from several phenomena and infringements that affect individuals, public facilities and the environment”, he said.

His Excellency also explained that this agreement comes to reflect the municipality`s orientation in creating a safe and comfortable environment to be a good outlet for the members of the community, away from inconvenience of unwanted behaviors, and that municipality hopes through this agreement to limit all irresponsible practices that would harm the public health or service facilities of the municipality, plus, raising the level of community awareness of the importance of joining hands with municipal efforts to mitigate the negative implications of the phenomena.