RIYADH — The Green Riyadh Program, one of the four mega projects in Riyadh, kicked off on Thursday with afforestation work in Al-Aziziyah neighborhood of the city. The project started off in Al-Aziziyah by planting 623,000 trees and bushes at 54 parks, 61 schools, 121 mosques, and 78 parking sites, as well as 176 kilometers of roads and walkways in the neighborhood. The ceremony started with a reception for the representatives of governmental agencies and the residents of the neighborhood. They were briefed about the stages and duration of the project and the accompanying works, in addition to the future vision of the neighborhood after the completion of the afforestation. The event will continue in the Al-Aziziyah neighborhood until Jan. 7, 2023. The program aims at planting trees in more than 120 residential neighborhoods, where designs have been developed for this purpose based on global environmental standards that take into consideration the local environment. Green Riyadh contributes to realizing the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Saudi Green Initiative of planting 10 billion trees across Saudi Arabia. The program seeks to plant 7.5 million trees in Riyadh and increase its green area to 9.1%, raising per capita green area from 1.7 square meters to 28 square meters, which equals around 16 times the current rate. It also aims to upgrade the urban environment of Riyadh by planting trees in residential neighborhoods. To ensure the sustainability of green spaces, the program seeks to create a network to irrigate green areas and reuse treated water up to one million cubic meters of water daily.
