Surfers and city workers gathered to clean up Sunset Beach on Sunday after thousands of nurdles, little plastic balls, were washed ashore.
Beachgoers in Dubai shared the photos of the clean-up on social media.
Candy Fanucci, who leads the Pirates Surf Rescue Dubai and Abu Dhabi group, and led the clean-up, told The National: “It happened around 11am yesterday. Tiny pellets used to make plastic bottles and bags were all over the beach.
“There were tonnes of plastic. Apparently, the bags of pellets fell from a container at sea. And one bag has about 25kg to a tonne of these tiny balls, so you can imagine how much of it was on the beach.”
The bags of pellets fell from a container at sea. And one bag has about 25kg to a tonne of these tiny balls, so you can imagine how much of it was on the beach
Candy Fanucci,
Pirates Surf Rescue Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Ms Fanucci said the clean-up was an effective community project.
“When we saw the plastic balls, we immediately sent messages to people in our group and in an hour we had hundreds of children and parents assisting us,” she said.
“Municipality workers were there and it made a huge impact. We cleaned it in a couple of hours.”
How do nurdles end up in oceans?
Nurdles are small lentil-sized pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size. They are melted down and made into several plastic items.
It takes roughly 600 nurdles to create one small plastic disposable water bottle.
They are often shipped across the ocean in large containers but can leak out of damaged packaging and containers on board ships and end up in the sea.
In 2021, the X-Press pearl shipwreck led to 1,680 tonnes of nurdles spilling into the ocean and onto the shores of Sri Lanka, the largest recorded nurdle spill at sea, according to a UN report.
The UN classified it as Sri Lanka’s “worst maritime disaster”.
Worst-hit areas included some of the country's most pristine beaches close to the city of Negombo. Experts said at that time that the pellets that were still in the sea could travel as far as India, Indonesia and Somalia.
But unlike kerosene, diesel and petrol, nurdles are not considered hazardous under the International Maritime Organisation’s dangerous goods code for safe handling and storage.
According to Nurdle Hunt, a UK-based group that tackles the problem of pollution from plastic pellets, more than 360 million tonnes of plastic was produced in 2021, weighing more than the total weight of the human population.
“After nurdles are produced they are transported across the world in their billions. During each stage of the process, from pellet to product, nurdles are spilt. When not cleaned up properly they enter waterways eventually reaching our oceans,” the website says.
Across the UK it is estimated that as many as 53 billion pellets could enter our oceans every year, the group said.
Cases of beach pollution in Dubai
Dubai beaches have been polluted by sewage and brown sludge in the past.
In August 2012, thick, black sewage was washed up on a beach in Jumeirah, polluting the water and the beach, next to Dubai Offshore Sailing Club.
Four years earlier, beaches along the same stretch of water were closed after sewage that had been dumped illegally in Al Quoz storm drains made its way into the sea.
Sewage tanker drivers had resorted to dumping the waste in storm drains to avoid waiting up to 16 hours in queues at the overloaded sewage treatment plant in Al Aweer.
The municipality sent out inspection squads at night to combat the problem and offered cash rewards to informers.
They also fast-tracked the opening of the second sewage treatment plant in Jebel Ali.
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29 – Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30 - UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1 - UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2 – Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4 - Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6 – Final
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
Company%20profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
TEAMS
EUROPE:
Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson
USA:
Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau ( 1 TBC)
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Her most famous song
Aghadan Alqak (Would I Ever Find You Again)?
Would I ever find you again
You, the heaven of my love, my yearning and madness;
You, the kiss to my soul, my cheer and
sadness?
Would your lights ever break the night of my eyes again?
Would I ever find you again?
This world is volume and you're the notion,
This world is night and you're the lifetime,
This world is eyes and you're the vision,
This world is sky and you're the moon time,
Have mercy on the heart that belongs to you.
Lyrics: Al Hadi Adam; Composer: Mohammed Abdel Wahab
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
