A ban on planting palm trees on roadsides has been imposed by the Capital Trustees Board.
The decision has been taken in a bid to cut government spending, while concerns have also been voiced about the health of palm trees that line highways and streets.
However, palm trees will continue to be planted in public parks, gardens and walkways in the capital.
“Relocating palm trees from their natural growing areas and soil to roadsides and public squares negatively affects their health,” said Capital Trustees Board member Mohammed Al Abbas, who spearheaded the proposal.
“The recovery procedure and time is lengthy and doesn’t restore trees to their original state.
“Palm trees are vulnerable outside their natural habitat, with weak immunity to general illnesses and threats like the Red Palm Weevil.
“Planting, protecting and trimming palm trees is very expensive and requires continuous, concerted effort and time – which is also expensive.”
He also said there was a potential risk to public health from palm trees that are relocated to roadsides for beautification purposes.
Mr Al Abbas explained that dates they produce could be “contaminated”.
“Most of the palm trees selected for roads have either become barren after being relocated from rich green areas, or produce contaminated dates,” he said.
“Basically palm trees are struggling to survive and are in a dire state. This is why limiting or banning their planting is the right step.
“There are always other alternatives, like neem trees, that are fit for anywhere, are not costly and are only minimally affected by external factors.”
The decision follows a June announcement, reported by the GDN, that a plan to slash spending on roadside plants in another part of Bahrain, the Northern Governorate, had been approved.
Last month the Muharraq Municipal Council followed up that decision by demanding BD4 million spent on road beautification, including planting trees, across Bahrain was not taken from municipal coffers.
It said such projects should be funded from an infrastructure tax levied on developers.
Northern Municipal Council vice-chairman Yaseen Zainal told the GDN that a palm tree that produced dates was at least BD500.
However, he said palm trees that were barren were valued at around BD180.
“The cheapest healthy tree costs BD500,” he said.
“Using the cheapest trees (valued at BD180 each) still costs at least BD180,000 if you plant 1,000 along highways.
“This is a waste of resources, palm trees are intended to grow in other areas. Keeping them in a good state and healthy is expensive and takes a lot of time.
“Just because Bahrain is famous for palm trees, it doesn’t mean government officials should go on a spending spree.”
mohammed@gdn.com.bh
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