Red tide? Pollution?

The natural red tide and man-made pollution of our beaches have been in the news a lot recently.

The subject has been popping up on forums too, with questions about it being asked by tourists planning to visit Dubai.

I stopped by the beach at Umm Suqeim yesterday to have a look. To be precise, to the beach the other side of Umm Suqeim Fishing Port from the public beach alongside Burj Al Arab.

It looked pretty blue and clean to me:





The fishing port is where the offshore construction of Porto Dubai is happening, so you'd expect stirred-up cloudy water. But again it looked to me as though the reports might be a little exaggerated:

Beach romp saga ends

The tabloids, especially in Britain, were initially screaming that Michelle & Vince were facing six years in jail.

In fact they got three months and didn't go to to jail as they appealed the sentence.

Now the Appeals Court has suspended the jail term, so they just have to pay Dh1,000 and they're deported.

From the hysteria at the beginning it kind of fizzled out.



There's a small report in Gulf News here.

Beach development

Time to update a post I did six months ago on the new development adjoining Umm Suqeim Fishing Port, off the beach next to Burj Al Arab.

It's a replacement for the massive development that was planned, for which the beach was fenced off - until The Big Boss stepped in and stopped it.

The substitute development is called a tiered island, although it's really a new spit of land being created adjoining the beach. It will have 45 villas on it apparently.

Today it looks like this:

The good side of Dubai

Strolling along the beach I was reminded of the good side of Dubai.

One thing was the combination of weather, beach, warm sea.

The other was something we should never take for granted, given the situation in much of the rest of the world.

Security. Lack of crime.

For example, there've been many reports from cities around the world of teenagers in particular being attacked and beaten up by gangs stealing their trainers.

Near Burj Al Arab a teacher had a bunch of schoolkids on the beach...

The beach - now we know.

Exactly a year ago I posted about a construction fence going up on Umm Suqeim beach. Here's how it was shaping up:



The media started to publicise it, there were voices raised in protest, a petition....then The Big Boss stopped the development.

But as I subsequently pointed out, dredging work continued.



Then at the end of May that seemed to stop and the island they'd been building started to disappear:



But here it is this morning:



At least now we have some some information about what's going on.

Emirates Business247 ran a story that tells us:

"Zabeel Properties, the property arm of Zabeel Investments, has started work on Porto Dubai, a luxury residential development, on a reclaimed peninsula that will feature a “tiered island” design concept for the first time in the UAE, according to a top company official.

“We have started dredging and reclamation work on the project. Villa construction will commence by year-end, while the project is expected to be completed by 2010,” Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi, Executive Chairman, Zabeel Investments said."

There's a photo with the article that's so bad I can't reproduce it here - you'll need to go to the article here and try to work out what they're showing us.

It seems to be a circular-shaped island jutting out from Umm Suqeim Fishing Port, and it's a far cry from the massive 4.5 million square feet residential/commercial/hospitality development originally planned.

Beach mystery solved

I was musing last month on 'Another beach mystery'.

I saw lots of sand being moved about on Umm Suqeim beach, huge bags being filled with it, gangs of workmen, construction machinery, trucks etc. I wondered what was going on.

Tody Gulf News has the answer, in a very interesting article 'Saving Dubai's Beaches'.

The sea is eroding the coastline, as it does quite naturally. We also have the changing water movement caused by the huge offshore developments and the artificial breakwaters.

Apparently the 5-tonne bags of sand are placed about 100 metres from the shore to form protective groynes.

Of course it isn't that simple, a complex tracking system is involved to determine exactly what's happening so that engineers can work out the best solution.

The full article and the photos are well worth looking at.

Another beach mystery

A mystery to me - does anyone else know what's going on?

The beach at Umm Suqeim the other side of the fishing port from Burj Al Arab looks like this:



Piles of sand, earth-moving equipment, gangs of workers. I couldn't work out whether they were bringing the sand to the beach or taking it away.

But then I saw big bags being loaded with the sand, so I assume it's being taken away:



And a very large area features the ubiquitous red & white plastic - more of a symbol of Dubai than the cranes in my opinion:



So what we have is a large beach area coned off, piles of sand, earth-moving machinery, big bags.

The beach has been eroded along this stretch with the changing water movement caused by the offshore developments. I thought at first they were building it back up, but I'm not so sure.

Any ideas anyone?

Plenty of good news...

...well, sort-of good news, it depends how you look at it. And, as ever, whether what's promised will be carried out.

The stories are all in Gulf News today.

First, the labourers labouring in 50 degree heat and high humidity.

Although not officially announced yet, a ministerial decision is apparently scheduled for next week, it seems that last year's 12.30 to 3pm break will be repeated this year. Minister of Labour Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi is reported as saying that no major changes are likely and that the inspectors will be out in force to ensure companies obey the rule.

The fines, Dh10,000 for a first offence, are not too daunting, but company transactions will be suspended for between three months for a first offence and one year for a third offence. That's the part that may force them to rethink their practices.

Last year nearly 25% of the 3,000 companies inspected broke the rule.

You can read the story here.

Second story is from Abu Dhabi and is on animal welfare.

The Federal National Council apparently agreed to the Animal Welfare draft law in its session on Tuesday and the 17-article law will be referred to Cabinet.

The law calls for violators to be fined between Dh5,000 and Dh20,000 with the possibility of jail for not less than one month. It says animal owners must take care of their pets and not cause them any harm...I'd like to see the stupid bimbo who walks her dog around Dubai Marina on the scorching footpath late-mornings made to walk barefoot on it herself!

The law also talks about the nutrition of animals and their transport, not crowding animals of different species together, sale of sick or injured animals postponed until they have fully recovered, written permission required for exhibitions of animals for sale and so on.

I wonder whether it will apply to Dubai Zoo...

As Mahatma Gandhi said, you can judge a society by the way it treats its animals.

The story is here.

Next we have what seems to be a reasonably successful blitz by Dubai police to stop improper behaviour on the beaches.

In May & June 1,461 people, we can assume that means men, were caught for improper behaviour on the beaches. That ranges from swimming in unsuitable clothes, which I assume means underwear which becomes almost transparent after a dip in the sea, to taking photographs of women or otherwise harassing other beachgoers.

For a minor offence they have to sign an undertaking not to do it again, for a serious offence they are prosecuted.

It's another welcome move towards a more civilised society.

You can read the story here.

Finally, reckless pedestrians are being held accountable for their own stupidity.

Crossing roads at undesignated areas is illegal, irresponsible road crossing causing an accident will be punished by a fine of Dh500 or jail time. Unless they're killed, presumably, which happens to far too many of them. We're told that up to 40% of our horrendous road fatalities are pedestrians. So now the police say they will get tough on 'reckless pedestrians'.

Throwing drivers in jail because an idiot ran across Sheikh Zayed Road in front of six lanes of 120kph traffic is obviously not the right thing to do. So this is a good move, a necessary one, but it's only part of the job to be done.

Let's be fair to pedestrians, we need crossings, particularly bridges or underpasses on major multi-lane highways. And we need to educate drivers to stop at the road-level pedestrian crossings when people want to cross. As it is now, if you stop to let pedestrians walk on a designated crossing you're more than likely to be shunted in the rear by another driver, who simply doesn't expect the driver in front to stop. Or he blasts the horn and swerves round you at speed, just as the pedestrian is moving across.

The story is here.

Beach development's developing story

The story about the possible development of Umm Suqeim beach next to Burj Al Arab just seems to go on and on.

The latest is that the dredging work now seems to have stopped. The boats have gone.



First, on March 18, I reported that a construction fence was being erected on the beach.

Then on March 30 I posted that The Big Boss ordered construction stopped and the fence removed.

On to April 10 and I had photos of the fence being removed. Looking good.

But. Isn't there always a but. Workboats were still working around the clock on something or other.

May 7 and we were talking about the construction site office adjacent to Umm Suqeim Fishing Port and the boats working 24/7 just offshore.

Now May 10 and I had photos of the brand new island that had appeared. A Boskalis Westminster flag was flying on it - it's their construction site office and they are a huge international dredging and land reclamation company.

But now, for the last week, the boats have disappeared. No more dredging, no more islands.

The little island is still there, the flag is still flying over the island and the site office, but there's no work going on.



Long may it continue. Fingers crossed.

Perfect shoal circle

Umm Suqeim beach this morning...







Strolling along, I noticed the 'shadow' in the water, went closer, and realised it was a circling shoal of fish. I'm so glad I had the camera with me.

Beach development seems not to have stopped...

...but surely they can't be ignoring Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid's order?


If you go here you'll find my earlier postings with the story from the time a construction fence suddenly started being built to close off the beach next to Burj Al Arab, through the press announcement of the development, on to Sheikh Mohammed's order for it to be cancelled, then on the mysterious and continuing offshore work.

You can find some good photographs of the work boats on NZM's blog posting on the story at M&J Adventures.

Yesterday I saw that a small island had appeared where the dredger has been working, today I took my camera and here it is. I'm standing on the wall of Umm Suqeim Fishing Port, which is about 700 metres from Burj Al Arab:





That wasn't there three days ago. The barges and dredger are working non-stop, so I assume much more new land is going to be appearing very soon.

Over at the Skyscrapercity thread on this development there's this render of a development on this site:




I'm not sure whether this is a vague general idea or a serious proposal, because it has not only the offshore marina section but comes in across the beach and back beyond it - and that's getting into the area where there are villas and Umm Suqeim Park.

Back to the offshore work - the question has to be, what is going on?

It can't be the development announced by Zabeel Investments, surely, because Sheikh Mohammed stopped that. There are rumours that it's a development at the fishing port and that would make sense because that's where this first island has appeared.

Wouldn't it be nice to know for sure.

Just stunning.

Strolling along Umm Suqeim beach yesterday morning and the sea was a particularly beautiful colour. I had the little digital camera with me, wasn't convinced it would capture the colour but I took a photo anyway. It lost a bit of the vibrancy of course, but it came out pretty accurately.



A little further along and this is the picture:



The beaches are one of Dubai's huge assets for residents and tourists. Let's hope we don't lose any more to development.

Umm Suqeim beach questions.

There are still questions being asked, and a lot of speculation, about the fate of the beach next to Burj Al Arab.

This is the beach that was fenced off for development before Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid ordered it to stop.

The doubt arises because there's mysterious work being done just offshore by two workboats and a semi-permanent site office complex has been set up next to the little fishing port.

The company flag flying above the site offices is Boskalis, which is a major dredging company.



I really don't have any knowledge of construction equiopment, but to my untrained eye the boats seem to have diggers on board and some sort of drill-like equipment. And they drag a floating boom between them - like the oil-spill booms - so I assume it's dredging going on.


This is in the area that Zabeel Investments said they were going to develop both on and off-shore, so that's obviously why there's speculation that maybe the development will go ahead. As Sheikh Mohammed has said 'no' I find that hard to believe.

But something's going on - maybe it's to do with connecting services to Palm Jumeirah...

If you click on the label beach you'll go to the earlier posts explaining the background to this story.

Beach update.

Back from Cairo - and am I pleased to be back in clean, unpolluted, garbage-free Dubai!

More of that later.

I went for my usual walk along Umm Suqeim beach earlier this morning, the one that caused so much comment when the development on it was announced - only for Sheikh Mohammed to step in and stop the project.

If you scroll down to 'Life's a beach' you'll see the photos I took on March 18. Here, from the same locations, are the photos I took this morning.

Not quite gone but almost, and the workmen are now going in the right direction, taking stuff from the beach rather than putting it onto the beach.

And finally, a shot from way up towards the other end of the beach. People complain that we don't have much beach, but they're the ones who repeat hearsay and rumours rather than checking things out for themselves. This stretch is several kilometres long, it's free and open to all.

The Big Boss saves the beach.

Excellent news for beachlovers and for Dubai's future tourism targets.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid has instructed Dubai Municipality to stop the construction work on Umm Suqeim beach immediately and remove the construction fence which cordons off the beach for the planned project. The beach should be left open for the public, the municipality was told.

This is the beach that would have been lost:



What may be surprising to many is that the project has been stopped in spite of the development company having as a co-director and major shareholder Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid.

Wasta has not stood in the way of a sensible decision. And, not for the first time, Sheikh Mohammed has demonstrated that Dubai is fortunate to have him as Ruler.

Irresponsible reporting - again.

I have to say, yet again, that Emirates Today has stayed at the bottom of the barrel with its mis-reporting of the story.

I complained earlier that they reported this development incorrectly, didn't bother to check their 'facts' and mislead their readers. They continue to do it with this new report.

They repeat: "Instructions to tear down the fencing work on the popular beach, extending from Burj Al Arab to Port Rashid..." It does NOT extend to Port Rashid, that's 20 kilometres away in the heart of Dubai city! It extends to Umm Suqeim Fishing Port, a length of about 600 metres.

The development was announced as being 4.5 million square feet, including new offshore areas. If it extended to Port Rashid it would be a thin strip development 20 kilometres long and 20 metres (65 feet) wide! Hardly likely is it.

Why don't they check their facts rather than mislead their readers? It's not difficult to do.


Gulf News has a report here.

Emirates Today story, complete with mis-reporting, is here.

Scroll down for my earlier postings on the two subjects.

The beach background facts

I've previously talked about the fence going up along the beach at Umm Suqeim, here and on the UAE Community Blog, the media has had some stories and there's now a website petition to 'save our beach'.

Here's the background.

The day after the fence started to appear, the newspapers ran a press release from Zabeel Investments:

"Zabeel Investments has begun work on a new 4.5 million square foot coastal development on Jumeirah Beach in Umm Suqeim, a company statement said.

"The unique mixed-use development will comprise residential, commercial and hospitality facilities reflecting a beachfront lifestyle," it said.

Located on the prestigious stretch in Umm Suqeim, the development will cover both existing and reclaimed land and will overlook the Burj Al Arab located just down the coast.

"We are in the early stages of this development and will shortly announce details of the project when finalised," Mohammad Ali Al Hashimi, executive chairman of Zabeel Investments, said."

If you go to the Dubai International Financial Centre website you'll find that Zabeel Investments has two directors and two shareholders listed. One is Mr. Mohammed Ali Ridha Ali Al Hashimi, the gentleman quoted in the press release.

The other is Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

I wouldn't bet on the petition to 'save our beach' being successful.

Life's a beach

We have some fabulous beaches in Dubai, huge stretches of soft white sand with warm turquoise water to swim in. They're part of life in Dubai for many people, especially at the weekend when friends meet there to relax after their hard working week.

We now have some iconic buildings on the beach too, which tourists love to photograph.

Today I took my camera when I went for a stroll along the most famous stretch of beach so that I could share some photographs of our beach culture with you.

First, the view of the beach from Umm Suqeim Park:



Then Burj Al Arab, the building that the tourist buses head to every morning so that the excited tourists can have their photo taken with our symbol of Dubai in the background:



And its sister hotel, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, photographed from the lifeguard tower at the end of the beach:

Tell me they're not!

The Burj al Arab beach has a very long fence going up, all the way from Umm Suqeim Fishing Port to beyond Umm Suqeim Park. It looks horribly like a typical construction site fence.



No signs, anonymous trucks, no logos on the workers' boiler suits.



More worrying, a construction site office is in place next to the Fishing Port.



So what are they up to? Not another development surely? We've lost more than enough beach already, from the very little that Dubai had to start with.

Not only residents would be disadvantaged, so would the tourist industry - a hell of a lot of them come for the beaches. It's what city-dwellers do for their holiday, go to a beach. And this one is a real tourist attraction because of the photographs of themselves with Burj al Arab in the background that they take.

I'm sure there will be news about what it's for before too long. Fingers crossed...