DUBAI: As part of the 37th Plantation Week, the Dubai Municipality has opened Al Khawaneej Pond Park in the presence of Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director-General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of the Dubai Municipality, and several senior officials.
Al Khawaneej Pond Park, which spreads over a total area of about 24.48 hectares (ha), is a neighbourhood park. Constructed by the Dubai Municipality at a cost of Dh21 million, it has 4.41hectares of landscaping. The design work was done in co-ordination with the General Projects Department. A national company carried out its construction and civil works, as well as the installation of an irrigation network.
Accompanied by Lootah and other municipal officials, Al Marri toured the park, planted a few trees, and watched the associated exhibition, which included photographs of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Their Highnesses the Sheikhs of the Emirates planting trees.
The exhibition also highlighted the range of designs adopted for many horticultural projects implemented by the Dubai Municipality at various locations throughout the emirate, as well as the role of the Dubai Nursery in providing plants for plantation.
Plantation is a culture, which plays a role in the strategic planning system and the expansion of green areas in the United Arab Emirates, Al Marri remarked. “It is a culture established by the founder of the green miracle, the late Sheikh Zayed, as he was able to conquer the difficult circumstances and achieve what was considered then by experts as impossible,” he added “We have managed to transform the land of this country, which was believed not suitable for farming and development, into farms, parks, green forests and factories that spread over an extensive land area ,” he said.
He praised Dubai Municipality’s efforts with regard to natural and agricultural projects, as well as public parks that take care of the culture of afforestation, and its quest to expand the green areas of the Emirate of Dubai, so as to contribute to the enrichment of its natural aesthetic landscapes.
Lootah noted that the municipality has been exerting all its efforts to ensure the spread of green areas in Dubai, which has many achievements in the field of afforestation to keep pace with the urban expansion and development, while the process of afforestation and the spread of green areas in Dubai is constantly evolving.
– By Sheena Amos