Incentives could be provided to encourage people to adopt green landscaping inside and outside homes and on rooftops.
Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf told the Muharraq Municipal Council in writing yesterday that a new strategy will be introduced in partnership with the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE).
Strategies
He added that the focus would be on getting people interested in green approaches.
Green, or sustainable landscaping, is the practice of using multiple strategies to create an environmentally friendly and climate appropriate landscape.
Major goals and benefits include water conservation, improving soil health, reducing maintenance labour and organic waste generation, carbon removal, and creating a habitat through appropriate plant selection.
“We will have an electronic platform on which people can submit their requests for landscaping inside or outside homes and on rooftops; we are currently working on a blueprint for the strategy.
“New rules would be co-ordinated with all relevant authorities to ensure specifics related to them are respected and adhered to.
“The new strategy is set to include incentives to promote greenery and shift from complete government responsibility over landscaping.”
Muharraq Municipal Council chairman Ghazi Al Murbati said people were already breaking the law by encroaching on public roads to set up gardens.
However, he added that they shouldn’t be punished.
“People shouldn’t be fined or face legal action for planting outside their homes unless it is banned.
“We want more organisational approaches to the problem and hopefully the new rules will help push people to get interested especially with incentives as an additional motivation to have the best showcase.
“The idea about home plantations and on rooftops is also interesting considering that electrical and water connections needed, sewage dispensing, and other technical aspects would have to be approved by other authorities concerned.”
Gardens
Council public utilities and environment affairs committee chairman Fadhel Al Oud said existing gardens outside homes shouldn’t be dismantled unless it is obstructing traffic or causing flooding.
“If we want to speak about people taking up public spaces and making it their own then it is several homeowners across the country who have built gardens outside their main gate.
“They are offering a beautiful view and they shouldn’t be punished unless they are harming others.”
The GDN reported earlier this month that Bahrain’s shopping centres, complexes and malls could be obliged to have gardens on their rooftop.
Parliament’s public utilities and environment affairs committee chairman Mohammed Buhamood said the proposal was part of efforts to provide mall visitors with a “green” experience.
He said the “health walk” in some malls was a good initiative but it nevertheless remained in concrete jungles, while the rooftop gardens would provide greenery and fresh air.
The proposal, which has been recommended by the committee, will be debated by MPs next month as their final term of the four-year tenure commences.
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