Qurayyah Pools

25°13'17''N + 56°21'00''E

Qurayyah Pools consisted of wastewater pools surrounded by thick bush and reedbeds near Qurayyah town along the Fujairah to Dibba road, including the immediate shoreline and adjacent mudflats. The pools were destroyed in July 2008 and sadly are no more, see update at the bottom of this page.

It is not mentioned in the Shell Birdwatching Guide.

Satellite photo from 2003

As you drive along the main highway, you will see a series of oil storage tanks:

Turn right towards the mountains on one of the gravel tracks toward the pools if you are approaching from Dibba in the north, or make a U-turn at the designated U-turn place if you are driving in from Fujairah in the south.

Photos taken in December 2005

Photo from January 2006

In July 2008, access to the pools from the side of the main road was blocked by the erection of a large fence. The dumping of waste water by the Fujairah Municipality, which originally created the site, has now ceased. The pools have been chosen as the site for a new oil refinery. They will be infilled and will completely disappear. Waste water is now being handled by a new treatment plant.

With the drying up several years ago of other, smaller, pools south of Kalba, inland of the road from Kalba to the Omani border and the cessation of dumping of waste water into a gully by the southern side of Fujairah Port, there are no longer known to be any artificial, man-made wetlands in the southern part of the UAE's East Coast, from Khor Fakkan to Khor Kalba.

In their heyday, the Qurrayah Pools accommodated over 200 breeding pairs of Black-winged Stilts, one of the most important breeding sites for the species in the UAE, while other breeding species included Moorhen, Little Ringed Plover and Kentish Plover. They were also a hot-spot for migrant and wintering ducks, waders and gulls.

UAE rarities have included:

Cotton Pygmy Goose (22.-30.11.2002)

White-breasted Waterhen (13.01.2003)

Common Gull (05.03.2001)

Black-legged Kittiwake (05.12.1999 & 05.03.2001) - UAE's 2nd and 3rd record

Moustached Warbler (01.01.2003)

Black Drongo (17.11.2005 - 08.01.2006)