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The Palms enriched ecosystem of Dubai |
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5/6/2006 10:11:05 AM |
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DUBAI — Contrary to some public perception, the construction of The Palms along the coasts of Jumeirah, Jebel Ali and Deira have actually enriched the ecosystem of Dubai, an official of Nakheel said.
"Nakheel has a great passion for the environment and it does its projects with great environmental responsibility. People say this is not true but only because of the size of operations. They cannot believe that such a mega construction can be carried out without having a negative impact on the environment," said Dr Imad Haffar, the property developer's Manager for Research and Development (R&D).
The Nakheel official mentioned that as per the baseline surveys they have conducted prior to the constructions, the areas where The Palms have been built were flat, barren and muddy with little biodiversity. With the construction of The Palms, however, positive environmental changes have been introduced.
"To start with, we created a huge reef. The breakwater of The Palm Jumeirah, for instance, extends over a distance of 11.5 kilometres and has been designed in a way that it minimises the impact of the waves. With such design, there has been a very gentle slope of rock that extends up to about 50 metres. This by itself, has created 500,000 square metres of artificial reef built on natural rock. Although natural rocks are difficult to find, expensive and requires more engineering to put up, we used it nonetheless because we wanted to create a natural habitat for the marine life," Dr Haffar explained.
He added that with the construction of the reef, more corals and a biodiversified ecosystem have grown, resulting in a dramatic increase of fish in the area.
"In addition, the very fine sediments that were created by reclamation eventually paved the way for a biologically and organically fertile soil at the bottom of the sea on which turtles and other fish are living. This also means a highly oxigenated water with excellent visibility for divers and people who would like to swim," Haffar said.
During the reclamation, the developer used the natural soil of the sea. "We could have easily brought in sand from the desert, which is plenty, but the sand from the sea is more environmentally sustainable, stable in terms of seismic and geotechnical terms, and has the fertile organic content that allows all the marine life to grow," the R&D manager said.
"Over and above, in every project that we do, we carry out an environmental assessment study. We have management practices and plans that we develop in order to mitigate any adverse problems that will take place. We have very strict policies as per the environment that we applied on our contractors. Plus the fact that we carry out continuous audits of our contractors to ensure that all their practices are done with the utmost responsibility towards the environment," Haffar clarified.
Nakheel, he added, has also taken into account the post-construction aspects of sustaining the environment by using state-of-the-art technologies with regard to recycling and conserving precious resources like water and energy.
"We have chiller plants that cool houses and actually reduce energy consumption by 17 per cent. Modern sewage treatment plants treat and recyle water so it can be used for variety of operations like district cooling and irrigation. We are using a vacuum sewage collection system so as to prevent any pollution resulting from accidental spill offs. Every measure has been taken so as to ensure that while people are living there, there will be no negative impact on the environment," Haffar noted.
The first residents of The Palm Jumeirah's first phase are expected to move in into their property by the end of this year. |
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