MADINAH — Instead of being an outlet for the city's residents, while it already suffers a shortage of green spaces, Bayda Al-Madinah Park has become a hosting ground for dead trees and neglected, dried and uprooted plants after being deprived of water.
Dead trees and plants are not the only problems. Inside the park there are doors indicating that there is entrance beside the road, but without a fence. The doors are rusty reflecting the neglect that the park suffers from. Games and entertainment in the park are rusty and only a few of them are in good condition. Toilets are unfit for human use and next to the toilets is an open water tank that emits unpleasant odors.
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Dead trees, dried and uprooted plants show lack of enough infrastructure at Bayda Al-Madinah Park. — Courtesy photos [/caption]Citizen Abdullah Al-Harbi said that in all the cities of the Kingdom, which he visited, he found parks with trees covered with greenery. “It gives the impression that there is ongoing maintenance by the municipalities of those areas but when we visit the park in Bayda Al-Madinah, one could tell that it is neglected,” he added.
It was shocking to learn that the maintenance of the park in Madinah is delayed although the contract is worth SR339,1730. According to sources of Al-Madina newspaper, the park has been handed over two and a half years ago to the contractor, who performed 65 percent of the work spending more than SR2 million.
Al-Madinah Municipality spokesman Salamah Al-Lahibi said: “There is no truth to the absence of watering trees and seedlings in the park. A national company is contracted to irrigate and maintain the park for SR3.3 million for 36 months under the supervision of the General Administration of Parks.”
He explained that the development and continuous improvement have included the maintenance contract to do regular maintenance for stadiums and motorcycle racetracks in addition to irrigate more than 20,000 trees planted in the park.
He stressed that the maintenance is ongoing noting that watering the park trees did not stop saying, “but it is known to everyone that we are currently in the summer season and high temperatures negatively affect the growth and appearance of trees during this period.” He added: “There is currently a development project of the park supervised by the agency to create a number of facilities and services to support the needs of park-goers and create a main gate for entrance.”
