‘Need huge agricultural project for palms in Kuwaiti desert’

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 18: Amid calls to exploit sick and dead trees economically without the mere satisfaction of using them for afforestation, activists affirmed that lack of exploitation of palm trees to generate financial returns leads to the wastage of millions of dinars annually, pointing out that revenues from dates export in some countries exceed one billion dollars annually, reports Al-Rai daily.

In this context, environmental activist Saad Al-Hayyan – head of the tree planting experience in Mutraba region, said “The palm is considered among natural resources that can generate huge financial revenues through the production and export of dates, which has become a wasted national wealth. The experience of some countries in exporting dates has yielded more returns exceeding one billion dollars annually”.

He expressed concern about lack of interest in the palm trees and the absence of follow-up and monitoring by concerned authorities, especially of the palm trees in streets, coupled with lack of skilled labor, stressing that “palm trees should have been among the major projects with the establishment of palm plantations in large numbers under the auspices of a government agency.”

Regarding the most important reason that lead to the death and disease of palm trees, Al-Hayyan said “neglect of maintenance leads to the spread of harmful and deadly pests and insects, in addition to lack of water that leads to the same result, as there are trees that are not watered throughout the summer.” He indicated “Kuwait’s palms have not been exploited by government agencies,” and at the same time stressed that there are many trees with ample shade that can withstand our hot weather, such as Al-Sidr Al-Baladi, Al- Ghaf, the Lob and the Sarsadim.

At a time when he considered citizens’ interest in palm trees outweighs that of government agencies, he stressed that Kuwait needs to increase the vegetation cover and the green areas by millions of trees to reduce pollution, which is devastating to human health and the environment. I hope to see a huge agricultural project for palms in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert.

Environmental activist Khaled Al- Hassan said, “The matter is not limited to palm trees but related to all trees and green spaces that suffer from scarcity in the process of irrigation, follow-up, cleaning and pruning, pointing out that trees in Kuwait are only yellow in color, while in other countries, they are green