Update: Dubai Municipality has examined the site…

Dubai Municipality says a type of clay is probably what caused a large patch of water in the Marina to turn orange on Thursday.

Photos shared to social media showed the mysterious substance creeping along the south end of the Marina, near The Jewels towers.

Some Twitter users wondered if some kind of spillage had occurred.

In a statement posted to social media on Friday evening, Dubai Municipality said a team had visited the site and taken some samples.

They said the likely explanation behind the colour change was bentonite, which had entered the waterway through surface water and rain drainage systems.

Bentonite is a type of clay used in construction. Here is the full post from Dubai Municipality:

. صرح المهندس طالب جلفار مساعد المدير العام لخدمات البيئة والصحة العامة ببلدية دبي بأنه لوحظ يوم الخميس تغير لون المياه في بعض أجزاء القناة المائية في منطقة المارينا حيث قام فريق من البلدية بزيارة الموقع والمتابعة مع الجهات المختصة لمعرفة أسباب ومصادر التسريب الذي سبب هذا اللون حيث تم أخذ بعض العينات. وقد قامت إدارة الشبكات ببعض الإجراءات الاحترازية ومتابعة منافذ التصريف التابعة للمنطقة لاحتواء التسريب وسد المنافذ. ووفقاً لمساعد المدير العام لقطاع خدمات البيئة والصحة العامة أوضح بأن الاشتباه المبدأي بهذا التلون هو مادة البنتونيت والتي وصلت إلى القناة بواسطة أنظمة تصريف مياه السطح والأمطار وهذه الماده تستخدم أحياناً أثناء أعمال الحفر أو ثقب القنوات العرضية، ويستخدم البنتونيت في حفر الآبار لأنه يعمل على تماسك جدار البئر إذا كانت الطبقات رخوة أو غير متماسكة Eng. Talib Julfar, Assistant Director General for Environment and Public Health Services at Dubai Municipality stated that a change in water color was observed on Thursday in some parts of the waterway in Marina . A team from the Municipality visited the site and followed up with the competent authorities to find out the causes and sources of leakage that caused this color where some samples were taken. The Network management Department implemented some precautionary procedures to follow-up with the drainage outlets of the region to block the ports. According to the Assistant Director General of the Environment and Public Health Services Sector, the primary suspicion of this color change is Bentonite, which reached the Canal through surface and rain drainage systems. This material is sometimes used during drilling or perforation of the canals. Bentonite is used in drilling wells if the layers are loose or not coherent. #دبي #بلدية_دبي #Dubai #mydubai #Dubaimunicipality

A post shared by Dubai Municipality (@dubaimunicipality) on

When What’s On visited the scene on Friday morning, the water still had a slight orange tinge. There was a construction site on the water’s edge, with piles of orange clay on the footpath.

A small pipe appeared to be flushing the area with clean water.

Here are some more photos of the strange phenomenon:

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Main image: @moaz_aj/TWITTER