Dubai Creek wharfages to be closed

(note: see UPDATE at the end of this post as well)

This news makes me sad.

The historic dhow harbour, one of Dubai’s most popular tourist attractions, is to be closed to long-haul dhows because of growing concerns about the difficulty of maintaining security in the heart of the city. For the past 100 years, the dhow wharves on the east bank of Dubai Creek have played a key part in the expansion of the city and the development of trade with East Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Tourists flock to the Creek for the colourful and often chaotic spectacle of hundreds of workers loading and unloading goods from the traditional wooden dhows that ply their trade on age-old routes to destinations throughout the Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Now, however, the pressures of the modern world are rendering the traditional site unworkable. Dubai Customs is to relocate all dhow shipping to the expanding Al Hamriya Port in Deira, seven kilometres away by water on the coast at the base of the Palm Deira development.

The dhow wharfages on the Deira side of Dubai Creek are indeed a major Dubai tourist attraction, if for no other reason than their rustic, bustling and rough-edged nature contrasts nicely with the rest of the city's modern sleekness. Both the Big Bus Company as well as the creek cruises make the wharfages a key component of the tours they offer.

The move is part of a wider strategy by customs aimed at improving the security of the city, which includes increasing the inspection of trading vessels and monitoring sailors who enter the country, particularly from Iran, Pakistan and India.

The attack on Mumbai in November, in which the assailants were landed by boat, emphasised the vulnerability of cities with busy waterfronts at their heart.

I completely understand the security rationale for closing the creek harbor. These wharfages are essentially located at the heart of old Dubai and, to be honest, I'm kind of surprised that this action hadn't been undertaken sooner.

But on another level, I'm disappointed. The closure of these wharfages represents the loss of a piece of Dubai's history - seatrading, after all, is Dubai's history - and the dhow harbor truly is a fascinating sight. Here are some pictures I took a couple of years ago:

As the article notes, no date has been set for the closure of these wharfages but the improvements to Al Hamirya Port designed to acommodate these dhows is expected to be completed in a couple of years. So enjoy the history, sight and bustle of the traditional wharfages while they last.

UPDATE: apparently the Dubai government has decided to shelve plans to close the wharfages, at least for right now. Businesses surrounding the historic dhow harbor on Dubai Creek reportedly protested the plan because they feared that they would lose customers. I have a feeling that this issue hasn't been put to bed, however.