A clean-up team has been drafted on to the Palm Jumeirah after complaints from residents about strong-smelling algae collecting along its shoreline.

For the past few weeks tenants living along fronds C and D of the artificial island, where garden homes cost up to Dh12 million (US$3.27m), have complained that the substance has left the area stinking “like sewage”.

Nakheel, the developer of the Palm, confirmed that the algae had been identified at locations around Palm Jumeirah. It said the phenomenon was common in summer, when warmer waters and increased sunlight provided perfect conditions for it to grow.

One resident said: “I don’t like to whinge, particularly with the current climate and with people losing their jobs, but when you pay a lot of money for a property on the Palm you want problems like this to be sorted out… MORE

A section of public beach near a sailing club was closed yesterday to let inspectors find out what contaminated the water.

Beach users said the water was black and Mohammed Abdul Rahman Hassan, the head of marine environment and wildlife section at the municipality, confirmed that inspectors had noticed “decolourised” water in the area and closed the beach.

Water samples were collected from the stretch along the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club area. Test results will determine whether the beach can be reopened.

“We took fresh samples today and the results will be out in the coming days. This means that the stretch of the beach area will remain closed for at least the next two days,” Mr Hassan said.

The contaminant apparently was in discharges from a storm-water drainage pipe. Industrial waste dumped into the pipeline could be one of the causes, he said. The beach next to the sailing club was shut by municipal ­officials in September last year when sewage illegally dumped by tanker drivers into the city’s storm drains flowed into the sea…SOURCE

In Jumeirah did Big Sheikh Mo
A massive great hotel decree
Where streams of sacred sewage ran
Through beaches uninhabitable by man
Down to a polluted sea

So twice five dozen top celebs
Did mingle with the local plebs
And there were fireworks bright with flashing stars
Apparently they could be seen from Mars
The only ones that didn’t party or rave
Were some newly captured Pacific dolphin slaves

A sheikh with a kandoora
In a vision once he saw
It was an Abyssinian maid
Overworked and poorly paid

And with fireworks loud and grand
He did build that Dubailand
That massive mall! Those slopes of ice!
And we all thought them very nice
But all should cry, Beware! Beware!
This sandy land is not so fair
And now financial storm clouds grow
It might be time to pack and go
For we on honey-dew hath fed
It’s time for some real life instead

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