Buildings and construction sites could face shutdown or utility cuts if found flouting hygiene rules or pest-control regulations, warned an official.
According to a Gulf News report Dubai has heightened its campaign to curb rats infestations.
"Premises related to public health that don't have a maintenance contract with a licensed pest control company and ignore our warning will either get a fine or face shutdown," Ali Obeid Bakheet, Head of Technical Services at the Public Health Pest Control Section of Dubai Municipality, was quoted as saying in the paper.
"We will have the water and electricity connections cut in conjunction with Dewa (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority)," he said.
He stressed that premises related to public health — restaurants, groceries, shopping malls, food warehouse and the like — must, by law, have a contract with one of the dozens of licensed private pest control companies.
Some blame the rise in the number of rats on o the extermination of feral cats. Pest control firms use a combination of rodent glue pads or rat traps to deal with the menace. Bakheet said that depending on the season, they get complaints about pest infestation like rats, mosquitoes, flies.