Dubai Municipality to mark Plantation Week

The week is dedicated to spearhead efforts aimed at turning the country to a green haven.

This was announced at a press conference on Sunday by Ahmed Abdulkarim, Director of Public Parks and Horticulture Department at the municipality, who noted that the week would also see launching of a number of landscaping and city beautification projects by the department. The press conference was also attended by Mohammed Al Fardan, Head of Promotion and Recreation Office at the department.

Abdulkarim added that there would be several horticultural workshops for students in order to educate them on the need to grow plants and turn arid areas into green. A voluntary drive, titled "Let's Plant Together," will also be undertaken in addition to a "Garden Souq" in Safa Park. "

Dubai Municipality is joining other civic bodies of the country in celebrating the Plantation Week with a variety of new activities aimed at educating the public on various objectives of plantation.

He pointed out that this important occasion is used to showcase the achievements of the country in spreading green areas and plantation activities.

Abdulkarim said the Municipality is proud of its achievements in the field of city landscaping and spreading green areas, setting up new parks and recreation amenities that are considered to be the result of intensified efforts taken up by the government.

He said that Dubai Municipality has accomplished greatly in formulating and implementing a number of plans for expanding the horizons for increasing the cultivated area year after year.

Abdulkarim said that the civic body has set a strategic objective for plantation policy as to make 8% areas of the emirate into green.

"We believe that green areas play an important role in protecting the environment from pollution by way of purifying the air from dust particles and hazardous gases. The green areas produce oxygen that will reduce noise and the degree of temperature, which will reflect positively on the health and goodness of the society. Therefore the civic body has set 2012 for achieving this target," said Abdulkarim.

He said the Municipality has drawn up a variety of activities for the occasion this year that include distribution of free plants. On the second day of the official inauguration of the week, Qassim Sultan, Director General of Dubai Municipality will open a series of projects that include plant exhibition, in addition to that the Municipality will distribute 190,000 plants in different areas of the city.

The civic body will launch eight horticultural and landscaping projects to mark the occasion. The new parks to be opened during the week include a two hectare Residential Park at Satwa, which will be open for public within four months. Three other projects of city beautification include Ras Al Khor (15 hectare), the Airport Road A2 (5.5 hectares) and Airport Road B2 (1.5 hectare). In addition to this, four community facilities will be opened at Garhoud, Muteena, Al Manama and Al Jaffilia.

Mohammed Al Fardan said that the occasion this year will witness a number of government and private establishments, schools and universities participate in a huge voluntary campaign, in which around 500 trees will planted in Umm Al Sheif area on Monday, 21 March. Tuesday, 22 March will be devoted to Safa Park, where the participants will plant flower plants and pluck out hazardous weeds and plant an area of 1000 metre to make it a green carpet. The plantation activities will start at 10am.

A number of edutainment workshops will also be held to increase awareness on dealing with different plants. The workshops will be divided into three age groups and special attention will be devoted to children between six and twelve in order to link them with nature and instill within them the value of appreciating plant life. The workshops will also include drawing, card making, flower arranging, flower therapy, and school gardening.

The second category of activities include increasing awareness on gardening and ways of caring indoor and outdoor plants. This category include housewives, employees, amateurs, and intermediary and secondary level school students.

The workshops also include plant drying, identifying insecticides, recycling papers, arranging and decorating flowers and methods of plucking them, arranging flowers using household materials, caring indoor plants, in addition to a workshop organized by Homeland.

The third category include agriculture specialists (supervisors, engineers and people of interest). These workshops include protecting irrigation networks, pesticides, arranging landscapes and flowers.

This year's activities also include Garden Souq, which will be hosted by Safa Park during 19-25 March. Many rare items will be on sale here that include items for gardens, farms, and beautification of domestic gardens, in addition to rare flowers such as orchids and tulips).

Apart from this, there will be garden furniture and other equipments for maintaining indoor and outdoor gardens, manure, and other environment friendly materials for controlling agricultural hazards, all for competitive rates.

The visitors to the exhibition will be distributed with prizes at stage shows. There will also be a big variety of toys for children. The exhibition will start at 10am and will last until 10pm.