By Sajila Saseendran www.khaleejtimes.com
It is blooming time in the desert city and the civic body says it has already planted 30 million seedlings of flowering plants across Dubai this year. What adds to their beauty is the fact that they are all produced in the nurseries under the Dubai Municipality.
The Horticulture Section of Public Parks and Horticulture Department at the Municipality has planted these flower seedlings in 1.32 m2 of area during the first nine months of 2013 with an increase of 2.5 per cent comparing to the total area where flowering plants were planted in 2012.
This comes as part of the department’s efforts to make Dubai the city of natural colours where the horticulture section could cultivate 70 per cent of the area allocated for the cultivation of flowers during the last five years.
The head of the section Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al Awadi told Khaleej Times that about 1,700 workers are engaged in the landscaping and beautification of the city of Dubai in three seasons.
“This is done as part of our strategy of expanding the greenery in Dubai by eight per cent every year. Last year, we increased the greenery in 150 hectares of land and we aim to achieve 180 to 200 hectares by the year-end.”
The seedlings are planted in different types of areas such as road sides, footpaths, public parks, parks attached to the DM buildings, markets, abattoir and sites supervised by the Public Parks Department. More info