Beaches reopen after sewage dumping

Two Jumeirah beaches have reopened after being closed for weeks because of raw sewage dumped by tanker lorries.

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DUBAI // Two Jumeirah beaches reopened yesterday after being closed for weeks because of raw sewage dumped by tanker lorries. A stretch of the public beach near the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club, and a private beach at the club, were closed when sewage illegally dumped by tanker drivers into the city's storm drains flowed into the sea around them. Independent water quality tests taken off the two beaches for the club in early October revealed three times the legal limit of faecal coliform bacteria and E.coli. Despite reopening its private beach, the sailing club yesterday maintained a ban on swimming and sailing activities in its private harbour.

The public beach next to it is no longer cordoned off and the signs warning people about the pollution have been removed. "The beach is open again and we will publish the results (of the tests) very soon in local newspapers," a municipal official said. The sailing club shut its beach and stopped sailing instruction in its harbour in September due to the sewage problem. The municipality closed a stretch of the public beach next to the club in early October.

Early this week the municipality said it had so far caught 75 tanker drivers dumping sewage. eharnan@thenational.ae