The Dubai Water Canal has new street furniture worth knowing about. The Dubai Civility Committee has installed solar-powered smart benches and charging-enabled lighting poles along the waterfront, adding device charging to one of the city’s busier leisure corridors.
The benches carry wireless charging pads on their flat seating surface and connect to solar frames for power. The lighting poles alongside them offer dual USB-A ports, rated at 1A and 2.1A, protected by waterproof covers. Both are designed for people spending time at a destination already popular for walking, jogging, cycling, boat trips and waterfront dining.
“At Dubai Water Canal, smart seating combines solar power, charging technology and practical design, reflecting public spaces built around people and a better quality of life,” the Committee said.
The canal installation is a new location for this type of infrastructure, but not a new concept for Dubai. Al Mamzar Beach Park was the first public park in the emirate to feature smart benches, back in 2018, with wireless charging pads, USB ports and free Wi-Fi powered by solar frames. Several other parks followed. Dubai also operates Smart Palm charging hubs at parks and beaches, shaped like palm trees, which provide USB charging and Wi-Fi access through ports in the trunk rather than wireless pads on a surface. Smart benches with solar power and weather information displays have also been installed outside a number of Dubai Police stations.
