For a city emerging out of a dessert, Dubai is amazingly green, much credit should be given to the Dubai municipality who relentlessly work to keep the city clean and beautiful. Either side of most roads are beautifully paved and gardened and you see more Bouganvilla and other flowering plants in Dubai than a metropolitan in a tropical country. And you are sure to spot a palm tree every nook and corner there is space.
Dubai has a wonderfully placed irrigation system that uses drip watering to keep the plants watered and safe from the scorching sun. The irrigation system gets its water from the sewer treatment plant at Al Awir; though the purification process leaves parts of Dubai with an unbearable stench at times, the fruits of it are well worth it. The water obviously has an element of manure in it (obvious from the smell it produces) and flowering plants just love it.
This well planned irrigation system has water outlets that can be connected to drip watering tubes that can be quickly configured to water any type of plant. The system has enough water pressure so wherever required they can even have sprinklers. Being a gardening enthusiast myself I’ve been closely studying how this works and I believe I’ve amassed enough knowledge to write whatever I said above.
My first visit to a park in Dubai was to Zabeel Park near the Trade Center. A techno themed park, Zabeel park is wonderfully landscaped with areas designated for barbecuing, children’s play, boating, a cricket cum football ground, amphitheater and of course my children’s favorite place the Star Gate a complex made to the shape of four planets that accommodates a small roller coaster, arcade games, joy rides and food court with adequate choices.
Apart from this Dubai has six parks all of which are great entertaining venues for families. Though I most often visit Zabeel park because of the choice of games it offers to my kids, my favorite would be the wonderful creek side park along the coasts of the Dubai’s man made creek. What I love most about the creek park is that it’s landscaping and nearness to the water and convenient picnic spots that it offers with barbecue pits. Also the creek park has great vantage points for photography enthusiasts, the floating bridge, the Dubai Creek side Golf course, Garhoud bridge are some of the picture worthy spots that are visible from the parks restaurant’s spire. Also the Dubai Dolphinarium is located within this park where you can entertain your self to a Singapore’s Senthosa park style dolphin show.
My second favorite would be the Jumeirah Beach park, this is one of the two beach parks of Dubai, the other being Al Mamzar Beach park nearer to the Dubai – Sharjah boarder. Both of these parks allow you to drive in to the park along with all your picnic gear and it costs only 10 AED (2.5 USD) for the car including the passengers in the car. Al Mamzar beach is mostly secluded in the evenings and it has good facilities including a chalets service that has to be booked prior to visiting. Also the Al Mamzar has a slipway for all jet ski and boats enthusiasts.
If you are a swimmer who’d like to confine yourself to a swimming pool, Al Mushrif park in Khawaneej has an excellent public pool facility that can be accessed at a cost of 5 AED per person and ladies and gents pools are segregated so it doesn’t really hurt the culturally sensitive.
Dear Bit of Dubai,
Upon stumbling across your article, “Green Dubai, I was disappointed to discover an overall lack of consciousness. While you are correct in mentioning the drip irrigation system is water-efficient, you neglected to mention the big picture problem at hand—landscaping in the desert, especially with non-native plants, places more water stress on a country that already has high water stress. Some of the underlying assumptions of your post are that there is beauty in perfection and that the environment exists solely for utilitarian value. I would argue that Dubai can be beautiful without the non-native landscaping, and to embrace such a thing is not really celebrating Dubai at all. There is beauty in the desert, the way the sand glides over the dunes and plants creating ripples, and in sharing shay and shisha with friends under a clear night sky. Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but has your vision become so clouded that you cannot critically think about why Dubai has more plants than cities in tropical countries or the impact of your activities? I implore you to take more trips out of your well-manicured parks and routine to open your eyes to Dubai’s high-impact green efforts and beauty—like Masdar City, the first Biodiesel Plant, efficient metro system, CNG stations, the Shelter—and to challenge yourself by stepping outside of your comfort zone. By default, people tend to search for the familiar in unfamiliar places but you might be surprised what you find if you venture further.
Iberia
Dear Iberia,
Your comments were most welcome, at the same time it appears to be just student like bantering and not something that was well researched, my blog is about living in Dubai, I am just reporting the facts and you certainly seem to have stepped on your own tail. In my article I never disagreed that there is beauty in the desert and it is enjoyable. I live just a stone throw away from the desert and I do appreciate its beauty. Desertification is a major environmental problem and Desert greening is something many scientists are breaking their head over. Which plants are really native to Dubai is subject to argument because hundreds of thousands of years ago middle east was a lush green forest and many of the plants that you have in your country could have propagated from here. Irrigation system in Dubai uses sewage water and it does not place any additional stress on Dubai’s water resources (if there was any!!), and not everyone enjoys Shisha (BTW it is banned to smoke shisha in parks), I deplore your prejudice to say that I assumed there is beauty in perfection I never assumed this I am just enjoying what is available to me without complaining. I welcome you to read my posts with an open mind and ask you to step out of your Utopian world so you might enjoy the world better.
I think the government has played its part in making Dubai what it really is by the proper utilization of the available resources.
The more I see the atrocities of the politicians where I come from the more I love the governance of UAE, particularly Dubai.