Special lighting systems should be installed at the various public beaches across the country to make them easily accessible to beach goers during the night time, especially throughout the summer season as many would avoid such places during the hot mornings.
Speaking to local Arabic daily Arrayah, a number of Qatari men stressed the need to cover larger areas of public beaches with lighting system as most beaches does not allow swimming after 6pm due to the lack of proper lighting. They said that some of the neighbouring countries have done this and it proved so successful in attracting more visitors to the beaches during the hot summer season. Besides, they suggested the lighting should cover around 50 meters in the sea from the beach to enable visitors to swim safely at night. Most of them suggested that this light system should be powered by the solar energy.
Saleh al-Taweel stressed the need to rehabilitate public beaches to make them safely accessible at night especially during the summer season. He said that the idea was implemented in some neighbouring countries, where proper lighting and seats were introduced and it proved very successful in reviving internal and foreign tourism.
He said the idea could be first implemented at a number of selected beaches using solar energy to avoid extra costs and when successful, it should include more beaches. Mohamed al-Qahtani asked the concerned entities to study the idea of providing public beaches with solar powered lights at night covering the whole beach and not only parts of it to allow beach goers to swim at night. Besides, he suggested that more public services should be introduced to these beaches to prepare them to receive more visitors.
Ghanim al-Kuwari noted that some public beaches have already been provided by lights at night but these mostly cover the corridors areas and do not reach the beach or cover the some adequate distance into the sea. He said that providing the beaches with more adequate lights will help them to be more family friendly at night during the summer season, especially during weekends.
Khalid al-Shajjira said that the beaches across the country are considered a true national wealth that have to be utilized and providing beaches with adequate lighting systems would certainly increase the turnout of visitors. He also suggested that the concerned entities should form a special committee that would be in charge of developing these beaches and improving public services there.
