Held to account for health and safety

Oil-strewn beaches and smouldering industrial waste should not be the price of development. And yet, these are precisely the pictures of progress accumulating in the Northern Emirates.

The latest stain washed ashore on Wednesday. An oil slick caused by illegal ocean dumping now stretches nearly 10 kilometres in Fujairah, from Khor Fakkan to Al Aqah; it's already one of the biggest in years. An investigation continues, but the contamination appears to be the result of illegal discharges at sea.

Oil pollution is not the only environmental blight to surface in Fujairah recently. The tragic drownings of two teenagers near an industrial site at the weekend highlighted the danger of another industrial practice: excavating quarries and pits in residential areas without due safeguards. In January, a near-drowning incident in a pool of toxic sludge sent two boys to hospital in Germany with burns over most of their bodies.

Environmental accidents are part of any modernising nation's growth, but corporate neglect of health and safety standards and natural resources are not. Illegal oil dumping near the Strait of Hormuz is not the UAE's responsibility alone, but the federal and emirate governments need to better regulate shipping traffic - and punish offenders.

Concerns about corporate responsibility are further elevated when shortcut industrial practices pose an immediate threat to safety. Boys playing in their backyards should not be expected to hopscotch caustic pits of waste. Officials at every level of government need to force polluting parties to clean up. Corporations have a clear responsibility, but preaching corporate citizenship is meaningless unless offending companies are held to account.

The Northern Emirates have played an important role in the development of the UAE. As the country has prospered, demand for the region's raw materials - including glass, cement and other composite materials - has also risen steadily. In the six years between 2002 and 2008, the GDP of Ras al Khaimah more than doubled to Dh13.6 billion. In Fujairah, oil contracts and bunkering plans are bolstering economic prospects.

But these gains cannot be offset by a lack of regard for environmental and public wellbeing. As the father of one of the boys burnt in January said, residents "made complaints to police and the municipality but have not seen any serious reaction from them". Perhaps it's time to listen closer.