Concern over dirty sand on Dubai's beaches

Beach-goers here have complained about polluted sand along Jumeirah public beach raising concerns about health hazards.

However, no known incident of sickness due to the polluted sand has been reported.

"The colour of the sand is not white anymore.

You can spot shells, stones, plastic bottles, shopping bags and even sludge on some parts of Jumeirah beach," said Shayral, a regular visitor to the beach.

She said the beach no longer looked suitable for swimmers or children who liked to play in the sand.

"We used to have white sandy beaches in Dubai but now they have a greyish colour to them.

I would not say the sand on the beaches is contaminated but polluted," Ebrahim Al Zu'bi, Environment Director at the Emirates Diving Association in Dubai said.

Talking to Gulf News, he said there were two main reasons for the sand pollution.

Firstly, the dredging work, which is going on at various construction sites along the Dubai coast.

"There was a practice of pumping waste water in the sea a few decade ago but that was later stopped. "When the dredgers go through layers of sand, they reach grey or black sand, which is polluted and it is also pumped along the beach," he said.

The second reason for sand pollution is sludge, which is also the result of dredging work along the coast.

However, on the East Coast of the UAE, there are areas on beaches where sand is contaminated due to crude oil being swept to the beach.

"It is dangerous for human health as well as marine life," he said.

He also warned people to avoid swimming in the sea if they were not good swimmers, as the seabed near the shoreline was very unpredictable due to dredging work.

Khalid Zahid, head of the coastal management section at Dubai Municipality, said the section was currently working on a beach nourishment project.

"We are bringing quality sand from Jebel Ali. We will spread some 300,000 cubic metres of sand on Jumeirah beach from Dubai Marine Club to the open beach near Jumeirah breakwaters. The sand replenishment work is under way," he said.

He said that before delivering the sand to the beach, the section made sure the quality of the sand was high.

"We clean the sand of any stones or shells and don't spread it on the beach if it is found to be polluted," he said.

Last year, the section also rehabilitated Al Mamzar Beach with good quality sand. He acknowledged the sand in the open beach area in Jumeirah was partially contaminated because of major development work along the coastline.

However, he said, it was not dangerous for people to visit the beach.

Report

The swimming waters of many beaches are regularly monitored for bacterial contamination from pollution but contaminated sand may be an unrecognised health threat, an advocacy group said on the basis of three independent scientific studies.

The studies found potentially significant levels of indicator bacteria in the sand, said the report by the non-profit Clean Beaches Council, an advocacy group.

Swimming water is regularly tested for E. coli bacteria, which itself is not harmful but can indicate that enough fecal matter is present to pose a disease risk.

The council's document entitled 2005 State of the Beach Report: Bacteria and Sand, was described as the first comprehensive look at the level of indicator bacteria in sand.

Two studies showed higher bacteria concentrations in sand than in the nearby water.

One was conducted by the US Geological Survey at a freshwater Chicago beach in 2003, while the second focused on two beaches in St Clair County, Michigan between 2001 and 2002.

Richard Whitman, station chief of the Geological Survey's Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station in Porter, Indiana said the findings merit further investigation.

There is no concrete evidence linking intestinal illness to sand contamination, but children spend more time than adults do playing and digging in wet sand, making them more vulnerable to intestinal illness.

"We simply don't know how polluted sand affects human health," Whitman said.

"And while we ... realise that sand may have a higher number of indicator bacteria, we do not know the medical implications of its presence."

Los Angeles Times-Washington Post