Dubai More Category: Sustainable

216,500 new trees planted to make the city more beautiful and sustainable

Dubai is growing greener every day. In 2024, Dubai Municipality planted 216,500 new trees, marking a 17% increase from the previous year. This initiative is a key step towards making Dubai more beautiful and liveable while reinforcing its commitment to sustainability under the Dubai Quality of Life Strategy 2033.

Expanding the emirate’s green spaces by 391.5 hectares (a 57% growth from 2023), this initiative enhances the urban landscape, improves air quality, and contributes to Dubai’s resilience against climate change. Through this initiative, 165 beautification projects were completed, adding lush greenery to residential areas, roads, parks, and public spaces.

Beyond planting trees, Dubai Municipality introduced advanced irrigation systems powered entirely by recycled water, ensuring a sustainable approach to urban greening. Indigenous species like Ghaf, Sidr, and Samar, alongside ornamental plants and palm trees, now flourish across the city, enhancing Dubai’s unique character.

These efforts reflect Dubai Municipality’s vision of a greener, more sustainable, and beautiful city, one where urban beauty meets environmental responsibility. As green spaces continue to expand, Dubai remains a global leader in innovative urban development, making the city more vibrant and welcoming for residents and visitors alike.

Dubai Creek: a liquid legacy

Dubai Creek is arguably the birthplace of Dubai, source of its economic growth and urban development. Today the 15 kilometre stretch of natural saltwater is not just a waterway, it’s a symbol of Dubai’s past, present and future.

Making sure this important artery stays clean and healthy is essential for the sustainability of the city and wellbeing of its people. The Public Beaches and Water Canals department is tasked with the job of removing waste, pollutants, and debris from the waters. This includes salvaging capsized vessels and clearing the flotsam and jetsam left by boats using innovative techniques wherever they can. Recently the team introduced a smart marine scraper to the waters of Dubai Creek in partnership with Al Khattal Boat Factory. The remotely operated scraper boat can collect over 1000kg of waste on each trip.

Dubai Municipality places great emphasis on protecting marine life and habitats, as part of a larger strategy to make Dubai more sustainable.

At Dubai Municipality, we take pride in our commitment to developing our team’s capabilities. Our teams have access to comprehensive training programs developed in collaboration with global experts to elevate skills, knowledge, and overall productivity, ensuring every employee is empowered to contribute to our mission.

Our training initiatives are meticulously designed to ensure employees at all levels can navigate challenges, assume new responsibilities, and lead with confidence. We actively encourage our team to engage in shaping our work processes and policy-making, fostering a culture of proactive involvement and leadership.

Each course is carefully crafted to ensure that those who plan, build and manage our city are well-equipped, highly skilled, and committed to excellence. Our commitment not only supports our employees’ professional growth but also promotes a productive and positive environment, where everyone has a role to play making Dubai more beautiful, more pioneering, more sustainable and more liveable everyday.

The new Waste to Energy Centre in Warsan takes Dubai another step closer to achieving its strategy to become the world’s most sustainable ecosystem. This superb example of successful public-private partnership is the largest and most efficient waste-to-energy conversion facility in the world. The centre has the capacity to treat around 2 million tonnes of solid waste annually to generate power that can meet the needs of more than 135,000 homes.

The vast 400,000 square meter plant converts daily waste equivalent to that generated by 3 million people into energy and uses recycled water to produce the steam required to power the centre’s electricity-generating turbine.

This ambitious project shows our profound commitment to the Dubai Master Waste Management Plan 2021-2041 and to creating a cleaner, greener sustainable city.

Dubai Municipality is making significant strides in sustainability.

As part of the Dubai Municipality strategic plan to transform its assets into green sustainable facilities, the biogas power facility was launched in May 2023. With a yearly capacity of 44,250 MWh, the centre will cover 50% of the Warsan Wastewater Treatment Plant’s entire operational needs, reducing carbon emissions by 31,000 tonnes yearly and saving about AED 320 million in operational costs over 25 years.
The success of this project serves to illustrate the efficacy of fostering productive private-sector partnerships that generate sustainable solutions for the energy needs of Dubai. In this year of COP28, our leadership and teams are laser focused on reducing our carbon footprint in alignment with Dubai’s Clean Energy Strategy 2050.