Green goals for arid Al Gharbia region

Western Region Municipality showcases plans to create a total of 100 hectares of 'pocket gardens' in all cities within the next few years.

ABU DHABI // The Western Region Municipality plans to make Al Gharbia the greenest region in the emirate by giving all six cities at least three parks each. "I want to have at least three parks in the cities available for families to go with their kids in the communal housing areas," Hamood al Mansoori, the general manager of the municipality, said at the Environment 2009 expo in the capital last week, where all the emirate's municipalities had set up exhibits.

"We're calling them pocket gardens. They'll just be behind their homes and the people can walk there. When we make the environment available for families they'll have a place to play and have better health." Mr al Mansoori said he expected landscaping contracts to be awarded within the next six months. Esamadeen Adley, the municipality's chief landscape engineer, said the parks would cover about 100 hectares of land and be completed in two to three years.

Khaled Abbas, who heads the landscaping department at Dorsch Consult, one of two consulting firms on the projects, said engineers were using satellites to find the best locations for parks. "The outlook for Western Region is not only to make it the greenest region but to make it the attraction in the UAE," Mr Abbas said. Asked about the cost of the project, he said a 15-hectare park planned for Liwa would cost about Dh60million (US$16.3m). The other consulting firm involved in the project is KEO International.

The Government has allocated Dh98billion to developing Al Gharbia, which takes up more than 70 per cent of the country's land mass, into an economic and tourist centre. Dorsch is also consulting with the municipality on plans for a 100-hectare theme park "including a zoo, rides and roller coasters" to be built in the Madinat Zayed area. "It would be something similar to what you would see in Epcot or Disneyland, and something unique on an international level," Mr Abbas said.

Each of the six districts that make up Al Gharbia - Mirfa, Liwa, Ghayathi, Silaa, Madinat Zayed and Delma Island - now has at least one public garden, according to Yasir Abdullah, the municipality's chief agricultural engineer. Last week, Abu Dhabi Municipality also announced a massive greening plan that would add more than 6 hectares of public park near residential areas. Abu Dhabi Municipality's display at the exhibition showed pest-control solutions and waste-management procedures.

Ahmed Shareef, the undersecretary of the capital's department of municipal affairs, said the expo had been important and timely, given the emirate's rapid growth. "It is truly imperative that ... we seek to further our understanding and direct participation in the protection of the environment," Mr Shareef said in a statement. Al Ain Municipality's display focused on waste management and composting, while the Western Region Municipality also presented its water-pumping and tree-planting projects at the show at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

"Our area is a desert area, so trees are the main weapon to combat desertification," Mr Abdullah said, adding that more than 150,000 hectares of trees have been planted in Al Gharbia since 1976. He said the municipality chose seedlings that were able to withstand drought. "We ended up saving 40 per cent of water consumption for forestry from August 2007 up until now, so it's possible for us to even increase the number of trees."

Water conservation is of particular concern in the area because of the demanding climate and the lack of rainfall. Many of its wells are now condemned because sediment accumulated over the years have blocked their natural filters. [e-mail]