Irresponsible reporting.

Irresponsible. Inaccurate. Inexcusable.

The subject is the fence appearing at Umm Suqeim beach.

The culprits are Emirates Today and "Anjana Sankar and Vesela Todorova News Reporters" who claim to have seen something which simply is not there.

I quote: "Upon visiting the beach, Emirates Today found a 17-km iron fencing is being built along the beach stretching from Burj Al Arab to Port Rashid."

I visited it yesterday and today too. The fence is maybe 500 metres, from close to Burj Al Arab to Umm Suqeim Fishing Port.

So maybe that's just the beginning and it will go the full length of Dubai's coastline?

Not according to the press release from Zabeel Investments, the developer. That says they are developing a 4.5 million square foot area and "will cover both existing and reclaimed land and will overlook the Burj Al Arab located just down the coast."

"will overlook the Burj Al Arab located just down the coast" doesn't mean 17 kilometres away.

And do the maths.


An area 17 kilometres long covering 4.5 million square feet gives you a width of less than 25 metres.

So according to our intrepid reporters, who tell us they've seen it with their own eyes, we're going to get a beachfront development 17 kilometres long and 24.5 metres wide.

And what was the Editor of EmTod doing, letting such demonstrably ridiculous garbage into the paper?


The EmTod report is here.

The press release is in Gulf news, here.