No erosion of Nakheel's The World: Expert

No erosion has taken place on The World islands and none of the islands require any maintenance work necessary to maintain the effect of reclamation, an international expert and Nakheel official have told the Dubai World Tribunal.

Summarising the recordings of their site visit to The World islands on May 21, 2012, in The World vs. Penguin Marine Boat Services case, the tribunal said: “We were told that there have been no substantial problems with erosion of the reclaimed islands or with the silting of the separating channels and that remedial works would be carried out if they were to become necessary.”

Christopher Goshow, a licensed professional coastal engineer from the state of Florida, USA, who has extensive experience of waterfront developments projects in the Middle East, including many islands in The World, was present during the site visit and also gave evidence, which wasn’t challenged at all.

Ali bin Thalith, Director, Nakheel Marinas at Nakheel, also told the tribunal that: “To the best of his knowledge, no maintenance work necessary to maintain the effect of reclamation is, or has been required on any of the islands. If it is required The World would seek to carry it out.”

“The World is an ongoing and live project,” he said, adding, “All of the individual islands have been reclaimed and to date 145 islands have been sold.

“The other islands are for sale and the website shows The World as a live and active project.”

Thalith added: “Development work has been carried out on three islands, principally on Greenland which was initially developed as a sales villa and a home and on Lebanon which is now functioning as a beach resort (though in day time only).”

Given that the global financial markets are now recovering, he expected developments to increase apace.

In January last year, Richard Wilmot-Smith QC of London, acting on behalf of Penguin Marine, told the Dubai World Tribunal that “the islands were gradually falling back into the sea.”

However, Nakheel attorney Graham Lovett of Clifford Chance said the project had not been cancelled, but was slowed by the global financial crisis.

“The World was in a ‘coma’ but would be revived as market conditions picked up,” he had told the tribunal.

Nakheel, later in a press conference, said The World project was not in ‘coma’ and the islands were not sinking.”

Ali Mansour, Director Projects, Marine and Civil Works, in a detailed presentation, said that there would certainly be “slight” erosion of the beaches due to tidal waves but the islands were well protected from waves and currents by an oval frame or breakwater.

The breakwater, which is segmented into six portions, has a total perimeter of 26 kilometres, which significantly reduces any impact from waves or current.

The breakwater was completed in December 2007 and 30 million tonnes of rock were used to construct it.

“When you have waves, you have erosion. You have currents, you have some erosion.

“But when you don’t have both and just tidal movement, you have minimum or controlled erosion which can be compensated at a later stage with the reshaping of the islands,” he said.

The World

The World project is nine kilometres wide and seven kilometres long.

It covers an area of 931 hectares and will add 232km to Dubai’s natural 67km of beachfront.

The islands range from 150,000 to 450,000 square feet in size.

The project is divided into private estate island zones, commercial zones, which have low/mid/high density resorts, hubs for ferry transfer points and public visitor areas.

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