Dubai invests $9.5m in beach maintenance

Dubai Municipality is allocating Dh35 million ($9.5 million) for the maintenance of its beaches for the next two years, said a report. The maintenance project will include preventive and corrective maintenance of marine facilities, coastal structures and pollution protection barriers, swimming barriers and floating anchors, said a report in Gulf News citing Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality. The project ensures that the requirements for accreditation of the Blue Flag certification - a prestigious global certification to be awarded to the beaches that are developed based on the concept of sustainability, including compliance to 32 standards - continue to be met. The Blue Flag Beach criteria are focused on four main topics: environmental education and information, water quality, environmental management, and safety and services. According to Alya Al Harmoudi, director of the Environment Department, the municipality does a routine check of the quality of marine water in the public beaches. “This is done by sampling the water of the beach and checking it once a month to ensure that it is free from anything that is considered harmful for swimmers.” The civic body also takes into the consideration the cleanliness of public beaches by providing recycling containers to collect, recycle and benefit from garbage as well as provides clean toilets and showers for beachgoers, Al Harmoudi said. “We are also building additional toilets and smart changing rooms in public beaches,” she said. The municipality is also preparing for the opening of a second Night Swimming Beach in Al Mamzar, with the first one having opened in Umm Suqeim. The Night Swimming Beach is the first of its kind in the world, as its operations depend only on clean energy generated from wind and sun.