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World's First Artificial Island Sets Record For UAE
By L. Ibrahim
Special to IslamOnline
DUBAI, May 6 (IslamOnline) - Call it Gulf Arab extravagance or not, this small, oil-rich emirate enjoys basking in the limelight of breaking records.
Over the past few years, officials from the Guinness Book of World records have made frequent visits to Dubai, the largest of seven Arab Gulf cities that make the United Arab Emirates, recording and measuring a variety of events. These included the largest chair, largest bicycle, largest chain, even the largest shawerma (local fast food sandwich) and largest incense burner!
Now the government here is taking aim at another superlative: the largest man-made island!
UAE authorities, currently disputing territorial rights over three islands with neighboring Iran, said earlier this week that it would be building two resort islands of its own off the coast of Dubai.
This comes as the tourist-lustful Arab country works hard to attract more visitors to this notoriously desert and barren land with magical projects such as Arabian-theme spa resorts built around man-made waterways, a nearby Dubai Marina, a new city costing $10 billion and scandalously fantastical hotels.
"More mega-projects are in the pipeline," said Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the mastermind behind the fabled project.
The grand scheme includes the building of two palm-shape islands with 17 fronds and a trunk, surrounded by a crescent shaped barrier reef.
The first, which the government promises will be built within a tight schedule of two years, will be located near Dubai's landmark Royal Mirage hotel. A second twin island will be located to southwest of Jebal Ali Hotel, near the Jebal Ali port. The islands will be accessible by 300-meter bridges from the mainland.
"The project is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, and along with the port of Jebel Ali and the Great Wall of China, will be a landmark visible to the naked eye as far away as the Moon," said a statement by the Dubai Palm Developers; a company set up especially for this massive project.
Sheikh Mohammad said by promoting all six Arab countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and large-scale tourism projects, his city will see tourism to UAE grow six-fold in over the next decade.
"Dubai shares the vision of promoting the whole GCC as a regional destination. We have started working on this already by issuing one visa for tourists to the UAE and Oman and relaxing visa laws for visitors from nearly 19 countries, bringing in 'elite' tourism to the UAE," he said.
While officials are reluctant to put a number to the investment involved in the project, each of the islands will be built using a total of 80 million cubic meters of sand and rock from dredging the sea bed and mining quarries in the UAE. This will add 120 kilometers of reclaimed land to the UAE.
"The first palm island development will include shopping complexes, cinemas, the region's first marine park, 2,000 residential villas and up to 40 luxury hotels," said Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai Palm Developers.
The first of these hotels to make a commitment to the project was the internationally renowned Kempinski Group that is to sign up for a prime site on the islands.
While companies like Kempinski have courageously pledged their support to the project, some experts in the field of tourism have shared apprehensions.
The first of these was heat. As the thermostat's mercury soars up during the summer, the "reported temperatures" reaches a conservative 47 degrees Celsius (116 degress Fahrenheit), making it almost near impossible to enjoy the usual sunbathing common in resort islands.
Some tourism experts proposed outrageous solutions: "If they can spend so much money building an island, I'm sure they can build big fans in the street to cool down the weather!" said Fiona Royall, Business Development Coordinator from the Australian Tourist Commission. "I just wonder if Dubai needs another group of hotels," she added.
But people in charge of the project disregard hot weather as a setback or challenge. "Heat? That's not a problem," said Maliha Badri, an architect at Dubai Palm Developers. In pure engineering jargon, she added that the "orientation" of the houses (the way they will be built) would have a cooling effect.
Then there's the issue of competition with neighboring naturally gifted islands like the Maldives.
"Palm Island is a great idea, but definitely not a competitor to the Maldives," said Mohamed Adam, Marketing Officer from the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board. "It is one big island with many facilities. The Maldives, on the other hand, has over 1192 islands, 87 used as resorts, 202 for inhabitants and the rest is untouched."
But whether the project gets criticism or not, the authorities here are keen to get it off the ground on schedule even if it means turning to the country's adversaries.
Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of the Dubai Palm Developers, told Gulf News on Sunday around 13 million tons of rocks would be needed to build the breakwaters of the islands. Iran, which still disputes three islands with the UAE in the Gulf, would be the only supplier.
L. Ibrahin is a Dubai-based journalist.
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