JEDDAH: Prince Mansour bin Miteb, deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs, will inaugurate a number of projects in Jeddah next week, including an SR28 million project that aims at turning Jeddah’s infamous sewage lake into an environmentally friendly massive green area.
Ibrahim Kutobkhana, deputy mayor for construction and projects, said that the greening project would be positioned next to the sewage lake and includes planting 200,000 trees in an area of 2.5 million square meters.
The sewage lake has been the dumping ground for raw, untreated sewage as the city has grown considerably in the past 20 years.
The lake has grown so large that it threatens the city’s vital and depleting aquifer and is being held back from populated areas by a sandy levee that some say could be breached during the rare deluge that strikes the city, which lacks an adequate system of drainage. The forestation project aims at utilizing the water in hopes that eventually it would be diminished by the demand from the six species of trees the municipality plans to plant.
Officials say new forest would eventually become a big public park for the residents of Jeddah containing various entertainment facilities and activities.
“The forest would also form a source of log wood in the future,” said Kutobkhana.
The project also includes placement of additional pumps from the water purification plant in the lake, construction of a main gate, a stone wall, a mosque, a watch tower, surveillance cameras, solar energized lighting system and a major hall for VIP visitors, he said, adding that future plans include building walking paths, public benches and toilets.
Kutobkhana said that the upcoming project is only the first phase. “The forest is planned to cover more than 10 million square meters in order to eliminate the sewage lake that was formed in the last 10 years,” he said.
Beginning next year, Kutobkhana said, the municipality would invite specialized companies to start work on the second phase of the forest, which would involve planting an area of over eight million square meters with more than 500,000 trees.
The project is one of many greening projects under study, including a national park and a safari park.
