Jamie Stewart Construction Week Online 15 May 09;
The Gulf has been littered by more than 200,000 tonnes of waste as a result of coastal property development in Dubai, the president of Emirates Marine Environmental Group (Emeg) has said.
The group has been working closely with Nakheel in the Waterfront and Palm Jebel Ali areas to assist with monitoring the effects of the developer’s coastal projects on the Gulf.
Nakheel is funding the work. “In Waterfront and Jebel Ali we have pulled more than 200,000 tonnes of waste from the water, most of which we recycle,” Emeg president Ali Saqar Al Suweidin told Construction Week. “We have help from Nakheel which educates its sub-developers,” he added.
A Nakheel spokesperson said, “Controlling waste is the responsibility of every person across all phases of our projects.
“Our construction contractors are totally committed to minimising and sorting their waste, as well as re-using or
recycling materials wherever and whenever possible.”
Al Suweidi also said that dredging work had covered large sections of seagrass on the ocean bed, a favoured food of the green turtle, an endangered species.
Emeg has been called in to deal with around 50 cases of green turtles being washed ashore along the coast of Dubai through fatigue.
The group’s marine programme director Rima Jabado agreed that the loss of seagrass due to sedimentation was a threat to the health of the green turtle population.
“It’s affecting them in terms of feeding,” she said. “It’s reducing the amount that they have to feed on.”
The turtle’s nesting beaches, which are located along an area of natural coastline near Nakheel’s Waterfront development, are also under threat.
“We just have to hope that they can find somewhere else to go,” Jabado said.
