Hot temperatures | Dubai adopts night beaches

(Dubai) A crowd of bathers, sandcastles, canoes-kayaks offshore… It’s hard to believe that it’s after 11 p.m. on this public beach in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where summer lasts almost six month.

After midnight, the thermometer drops to 30 degrees after having been around 40 during the day.

“The temperatures drop a little in the evening,” it’s “great,” says Mohammed, a 32-year-old Pakistani expatriate, who came to enjoy the sea with his two children without having to endure the scorching sun between May and October in the emirate. of the Gulf.

Located in one of the hottest regions in the world, this cosmopolitan city of 3.6 million inhabitants created more than 800 meters of “night beaches” last year, staffed by lifeguards 24 hours a day. , anti-shark nets, and giant searchlights.

“When we walk or swim, we see our feet, our hands, everything,” rejoices the father.

According to the project manager at the municipality, Hamad Shaker, everything has been done to reassure swimmers: the nets keep marine animals away, the swimming instructors have binoculars with night vision, and a camera system equipped with artificial intelligence, making it possible to sound the alert in the event of drowning, is even being tested.

“I think we are one of the only cities in the world to have so much infrastructure on public beaches at night, and certainly the only ones in the Middle East and North Africa,” he says. These beaches, he says, have welcomed “more than a million people” since last year.

“Need to relax”

At a time when the Middle East is being shaken by a military escalation, between Israel on the one hand, Iran and its allies — Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah — on the other, in Dubai, where foreigners represent more than 90%. of the population, the night beaches attract crowds on weekends.

On that of Umm suqeim, Mary Bayarka, a 38-year-old Belarusian trainer, comes to enjoy a little freshness “after a long and hot day”, even if the water temperature is not yet cool enough to its taste.

“It’s a bit like a bath,” she says, smiling.

A little further away, Laya Manko, a 36-year-old Filipino saleswoman, enjoys burying herself in the sand.

This beach, where he sometimes spends the night with his friends, is a breath of fresh air for the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who drive the emirate’s economy. “We work hard in Dubai so we need to relax,” she says.

With this new attraction, the authorities are also seeking to attract tourists, who are confined to air-conditioned spaces during the hot season.

Global warming

Fifty years ago, Dubai was largely deserted at the height of summer, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees.

But with its tallest tower in the world, its immense shopping centers and indoor amusement parks, it has established itself as “a year-round urban destination”, welcoming more than 17 million visitors per year. last, underlines Manuela Gutberlet, researcher at the tourism academy at the University of Breda, in the Netherlands.

Global warming could, however, limit its ambitions, underlines the expert, referring in particular to the torrential rains which paralyzed the city for several days last April.

The multiplication of these phenomena and the expected rise in temperatures beyond 40 or even 50 degrees could discourage tourists, she continues, hence the need to “adapt quickly to these new risks”.

In the meantime, on the beach, Laziz Ahmed is enjoying his first vacation in Dubai. “We are good,” said this 77-year-old Frenchman, who came to visit relatives. “During the day, I don’t go out much,” but in the evening “I make up for it.”