Public parks go smart under MME initiative

DOHA: The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), represented by the Public Parks Department, has started works to develop modern public parks incorporating innovative ideas and smart technologies.

The move aimed at making public parks more environmentally-friendly and sustainable entertainment facilities. “We are working on a project to develop modern parks which will be equipped with central controlled irrigation system, solar-power systems and many more,” said Mohamed Al Sada, Assistant Director of Public Parks Department.

“Under smart park project, every park will have new specialties for which it would be recognised,” said Al Sada while speaking in a talk show at Al Rayyan TV recently.

“Now we are relying more on solar power system for lighting parks. Parks are being developed in a big way, we installed central controlled irrigation system which helped detect any leakage in the pipe thorough a device,” said Al Sada. He said that the system releases the water as per the need of a particular place which helped rationalise the water consumption, a requirement of smart park.

“We experimented a concept of smart park in Al Khor Park,” said Al Sada. He said that a device was installed at Al Khor Park to recycle the organic waste of this very park into fertilizer to be used for plant, trees and greenery of the park.

He said that children during their visit to Al Khor Park were being given opportunity to plant trees inside the premises using recycled organic fertilizers.

Ministry of Municipality and Environment, represented by the Public Parks Department, launched a nationwide initiative at Al Khor Park in April this year as well to turn food waste and tree leaves in to organic fertiliser with the help of a sophisticated recycling machine.

The Ministry plans to expand this initiative to other parts of the country by installing recycling machines in several places.

The initiative, “National Recycling Awareness (Tadweer)”, is being implemented by the Ministry in collaboration with Ras Laffan Power Company (RLPC) and Al Tayyar Company for Marketing and Event Management.

The initiative aims at creating awareness about environment protection and sustainability among all segments of the community in a bid to preserve the natural resources and to achieve the goal of self-sufficiency.

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment had announced in May 2016 to develop 60 new ‘smart public parks’ across Qatar. The Ministry planned to provide smart technologies, innovative ideas and unique products which are environment-friendly and sustainable, to introduce in the upcoming public facilities.

All the upcoming new parks will be different from the existing ones.  Public Parks Department at the Ministry planned to incorporate innovative ideas, smart technologies, new plants, flowers and trees which are more resilient to the harsh climatic conditions such as dusty winds and high temperatures.