Sharjah plans to set up 17 parks

Sharjah Municipality is drawing up plans to build 17 parks. Engineer Ahmad Fikri, Municipality Director General, yesterday said 14 will be located in Sharjah, two in Al Dhaid and one in Kalba.

He was addressing a function marking the 23rd Afforestation Week at the Cultural Palace. It was attended by Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Ports and Customs Authority, and Salem Al Shamsi, Chairman of the Sharjah Consultative Council.

Once the parks are ready, the green area will total 7.8 million square metres, of which 6.8 million square metres will be within Sharjah city with 12,000 palm trees.

The emirate's success in fighting desertification and spreading greenery won it the Golden Award in the seventh session of the Green City Award held by the Arab Cities Organisation.

This would not have been possible without the directions of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, to make Sharjah a green emirate.

Dr Sheikh Sultan has directed that efforts should focus on establishing parks, especially neighbourhood parks, for the benefit of residents, said Engineer Fikri.

He said: "The achievements gained in a remarkably short time have been praised by visitors. Sharjah is now also known as the Green City apart from the Arab Cultural Capital."

The municipality objectives include increasing public awareness and enhancing interaction with the public in celebrating afforestation week.

"For this purpose, the municipality organised for the first time the best house garden competition. By honouring the winners, we hope that it will encourage others to share the municipality's responsibility of turning the emirate green."

Celebrated under the slogan Agriculture is Life and Civilisation, the week highlights the country's efforts in farming, greenery and afforestation projects, said Obaid bin Eisa, Assistant Secretary General of the General Secretariat of UAE Municipalities.

He said within a short period the municipalities had planted more than one million trees that helped protect cities from environmental and climatic problems such as sandstorms and pollution.

Bin Eisa praised the efforts of the Sharjah Ruler who has made the landscape beautiful using traditional and modern elements.

Bin Eisa called on the public to cooperate with the municipalities in maintaining the greenery. The three winners in the best house garden competition were honoured along with 22 employees of the Agricultural Section and eight employees who were members of the Nomination Committee for the award.

The three winners were: Engineer Nader Tawfiq Al Qaddumi, Ibrahim Mohammed Al Amiri and Ali Nasser Al Owais.