Doha, April 23 (QNA) - HE Minister of Municipality Abdullah bin Hamad bin Abdullah Al Attiyah stated that the State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Municipality, gives foremost priority to upgrading public parks and afforestation nationwide, in addition to increasing green spaces to serve as recreational and healthy settings for citizens, residents and visitors, in pursuit of achieving the environmental sustainable development goals, in consistent with the National Development Strategy 2024-2030 and the Qatar National Vision 2030.

His Excellency's remarks came following the inauguration of Mesaieed park of Al Wakra Municipality on Tuesday, affirming that the Ministry has been keen on launching several national initiatives over the past years to increase the green spaces in Qatar, chief amongst which are the ten million tree and one million tree initiatives that primarily aim to promote life quality in cities and achieve the sustainable development, which broadly helped all eight Qatari cities win the title of healthy cities by the World Health Organization (WHO).

HE the Minister added that seven Qatari cities have joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, affirming the remarkable development in all parks and green areas in the state, with the number of parks, plaza and corniche reaching 144 in 2023. His Excellency highlighted that the percentage of green spaces nationwide reached 43 sq. m in 2023, thanks to the collaboration with all entities in the country.

For his part, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Public Services Affairs Abdullah Ahmed Al Karani underlined that the sector of Public Services Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality highly prioritizes the construction of new parks and rehabilitating the decrepit and outdated ones to remain within the required level. He added that the Ministry strives to maintain and upgrade that level in alignment with the international standards.

Al Karani stated that the Ministry will follow up on all phases of these projects, in terms of studying the concept designs, as well as tendering, awarding and implementation, culminating in the emergence of these parks, in addition to setting a strategic plan in coordination with all competent authorities to expand green spaces and prepare the parks to be further distributed to all municipalities during the upcoming years.

Assistant Director of Public Parks Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment Mohamed Ibrahim Al Sada said the construction of Mesaieed park took ten months and the department will embark on overseeing and operating it within the framework of the Ministry's keenness to upgrade public parks by pursuing world-class specifications.

He highlighted that after the inauguration of Mesaieed park, many other parks will be opened in the coming period, since they are among the industrial zones whose green spaces should be expanded to purify and improve air quality.

Mesaieed park includes sports walkway with a rubber floor, 676 meters long, extending over a space of nearly 38,029 sq. m, with the green spaces representing about 11,316 sq. m of natural grass, trees and palm trees, and are irrigated utilizing the state-of-the-art automatic methods. Also, it includes playgrounds for both adults and children, along with parking lots that accommodate 132 vehicles, including parking lots for persons with disabilities and police vehicles. (QNA)