AMMAN — A project to build an environmental park
in the town of Rusaifa, east of Amman, will be completed according to schedule,
in the middle of this year,
Minister of Public Works and Housing Yahya Al-Kisbi
said.
اضافة اعلان
The minister told
Jordan News that by
mid-January, 26 percent of works had been completed almost four months after the
project was started.
According
to the minister, Rusaifa Environmental Park will provide a "sustainable,
healthy, natural and vital recreational space for the residents of the area,
which has been historically associated with environmental hazards, like the
nearby garbage landfill, which has been removed, the old phosphate mines,
factories, and others”.
The
park will feature tiled spaces, trails for walking and jogging, areas for
family gatherings, landscaped areas, children playgrounds, fountains, a
basketball pitch and two small-sized football fields, stairs, pavement
umbrellas, parking lots, water reservoirs to collect rainwater, and forested
parts, all built over some 74 dunums.
In the long run, the minister said, parks like
the one in Rusaifa, a district inhabited by more than half a million people,
will help address the effects of climate change and pollution, "which are
major challenges in the world and require orchestrated efforts to deal with
their repercussions".
The project is being implemented by the ministry
through Zarqa Public Works Department.
Environmentalist and Chairman of
Jordan Environmental Union Omar Shoshan, said rather than calling the park "environmental",
he would prefer to classify it as a "recreational area”, defining an
environmental park as one whose “primarily ecological purpose is the protection
of an area of significant environmental value. These parks protect and enhance
biodiversity by providing habitat for flora and fauna and may include movement
corridors".
"We had better call it an artificial
ecosystem," he said, acknowledging that building the park on the old
phosphate mining areas is a wise decision as it will help "reverse the
ecological damage caused by the mining activities".
Saeed Al-Damhouri, professor of environmental
studies at the
University of Jordan, also believes the project will have a
positive effect on the environment, being built on an abandoned phosphate
mining location.
"Mining locations are open areas associated
with pollution and dust, so forestation is the answer to increasing green areas
and curbing desertification," he said.
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