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Qatar To Plant 16,000 Trees For World Cup

Oases of 16,000 trees will be planted ahead of Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Oases of 16,000 trees will be planted ahead of Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Against all odds, the Qatar 2022 football World Cup organizers have announced that they will grow 16,000 trees around the tournament’s stadiums as part of its legacy. This is extraordinary, given that Qatar is a desert state and would need proper and sustainable irrigation systems to maintain large-scale botanical gardens or forests.

Before being placed in their permanent location around the stadiums, the trees will be raised at a 880,000-square meter temporary nursery in northern Qatar. Once they mature and are the appropriate size the trees will be relocated and planted near the football stadiums, about six years ahead of the cup.

There will be more than 60 different species of trees among them, most prominently the Sidra, which has proved to survive the harsh deserts of Qatar and has done so for generations. There will also be Ficus and Acacia trees among many others. While at their temporary location, the forest will be watered with filtered water from a sewage treatment plant near by, in Al-Shamal.

It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but eight different venues are expected to host the tournament, which has cost the state over $200 billion in preparations.

However, the trees are not the first non-football initiative the organizers have done for the World Cup. Previously they announced that fans could be housed in campsites with Bedouin-style tents, and as many as 12,000 visitors could be accommodated on cruise ships.

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