Sunken wooden ship weighing over 90 tonnes fished out of Dubai Creek

Sumayya Saad, Staff Reporter

The remnants of a wooden ship weighing over 90 tonnes were successfully recovered in record time after it had sunk in Dubai Creek, said Engineer Abdul Majeed Saifai, Director of Waste Management at Dubai Municipality.

"A team of 26 workers including 6 supervisors representing all the parties involved in the operation participated in the recovery process of the abandoned floating restaurant in the Riqqat Al Buteen area," he added.

"After identifying the location of the sunken ship and the starting date of the salvage process, an emergency team of the Coastal Zone & Inland Waterways took all the necessary on-site precautionary measures and public safety requirements in co-ordination with the people concerned at the Dubai Police and Roads and Transport Authority," he said.

"The team began cordoning off the site to curb the spread of the waste in the creek as a preliminary measure and then they started the ship flotation process by lifting the ship through giant cranes and taking it out to the sea berth for transport to the recycling site," he added.

"As for the remnants of the sunken ship, the emergency team sought the assistance of the Dubai Voluntary Diving Team to get the remnants out on the sea berth, using cranes, open trucks, boats and other tools including shovels and buoyancy balloons," he said.

Saifai pointed out that since the beginning of this year, Dubai Municipality cadres were able to recover 13 sunken vessels and curb the spread of hazardous waste including leaked oil, algae, dead fish etc.