DUBAI: Billion-dollar islands being built off the coast of Dubai offer wealthy tourists a chance to leave the world behind, but environmentalists say the Gulf’s delicate marine ecosystem is paying the price for this perfect escape.
A government-owned developer is building three islands in the shape of palm trees — one surrounded by more islands spelling out an Arabic poem — and a fourth group of 300 private islands shaped like a map of the world.
‘The perfect place to leave the world behind’ touts the developer’s website, which features pictures of the verdant isles and their white beaches, being built at a cost of $20 billion.
The luxury resorts and homes on the islands have already attracted celebrities like English footballer David Beckham, who bought a villa in advance. The map of the world development offers a golf island and an African safari island.
Dubai, one of seven semi-autonomous states of the United Arab Emirates, is the leading commercial centre in the Gulf region and has ambitious plans to boost its thriving tourism industry to prepare for when its low oil reserves run out.
But environmentalists say the futuristic island developments have taken a heavy toll on the present ecosystem.
The only known coral reef off the shores of Dubai was destroyed during the dredging work, turtle nesting sites have been destroyed, natural currents rerouted and silt has muddied what were crystal-clear waters, they say.
“It has been detrimental for the natural environment of the Dubai coast, especially at the place and location of the first Palm island,” said Frederic Launay, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s office in the United Arab Emirates.
“That is a little bit of a shame because there were very good habitats there. There were possibilities of recovery and protection, and there were possibilities of using that natural asset to make something,” he told Reuters.
“This opportunity has been lost and now we are only talking about remediation and mitigation.”
Dubai, once a tiny trading post in the Gulf, wants to attract foreign cash and investment into an economy that is weaning itself off rapidly-dwindling crude oil reserves.
The city of modern skyscrapers wants to make sure its 1.4 million residents and 5 million plus tourists get everything they want — and this has made it an architect’s playground.
For now, record high oil prices are stoking a construction boom in the city, an oasis of park-lined highways in the blistering heat and suffocating humidity of the desert.—Reuters
