No more wetland

Over a year ago, I visited the Neima pool, a disused patch of desert with several interconnected natural depressions, off the Zakhir district in Al Ain.

The place was being used by the local sewage treatment plant as a dumping ground for untreated sewage.
The pool held water all year round. The stagnant water helped transform more than a square kilometre of the area into an oasis.

A thick carpet of algae supported the growth of Australian reed Phragmites australis along the pool's edges where aquatic insects and worms that are food for many birds thrived.

Over the years, birdwatchers have seen more than 100 species of birds passing through the area where several local species bred. Notable among these were migratory ducks and geese, waders, birds of prey and some passerines.

Black-winged stilt, Kentish plover and red-wattled lapwing bred near water when bee-eaters, doves, shrikes bred overland or in trees.

However, when I visited the place recently, I was shocked to find the area being levelled, with no trace of the pool. It looks like a real estate development is taking place in the Neima area.

Al Ain, which is known as the garden city of the UAE, must have strict guidelines to ensure that if such developments destroy a local habitat, it must relocate all animals and plants from the affected areas.