I love Kuwait with all its flaws except for one, the tree cutting for no reason habit. I can never understand why beautiful green trees get cut down in Kuwait. I am also not the only one who hates this because their is a group on Facebook called “Keep Kuwait Green! Stop the Izala from cutting our trees!” which is fighting to stop this. Here is information about the group:
After the government came and removed our 35 year old Rubber trees without any warning, it made me realize that there are many other houses being effected.
People started calling about the same thing happening to them, and told me stories of horrible murder like incidents of the trees they once planted.
The mission of this group is to report and post pictures of all wrong doing by our government and the removal of trees. Please post the address of the places that you see them removing trees that were not used as a personal garden. If possible post your pictures also.
We will be posting and sending the pictures to all newspapers and blogs and anyone willing to listen to us. Some of the trees in Kuwait are a part of our history.
They have been here long before we have.
Let’s unite and try to keep Kuwait greener!
I would like to add one more thing which is the trimming of the trees and bushes. The Gulf Road area near Burj Hamam was looking pretty green and natural for awhile now and then suddenly yesterday they started trimming all the trees and bushes into cubes. Can someone tell whoever is responsible for that to stop. Trees that look like cubes might look pretty at Disney Land but not on the Gulf Road and they definitely don’t give any shade or protection.
So if you think the government should stop cutting trees down then please join the facebook group and voice your support. Here is the [Link]
48 replies on “Keep Kuwait green, stop the government from cutting down our trees!”
Oh yah, do you remember when you posted about that few months ago, when I took those pics at Salwa 🙁
they are still doing the same.
Kuwait is Desert
r we talking about trees planted on government land illegally? if so, then one has to consider that fact and not just look at it as the government is killing trees for no reason
Its planting trees, not building a house or a factory. How is a tree growing on land (public or private) illegal?
in USA u will pay about 5000 USD if u took out a tree
It could also have to do with the fact that we are an arid and the water used on these trees could be better spent elsewhere.
well they want to keep it deserted as that’s what Kuwait is a desert FOR THEM at least.
They’ve gone too far with this BS, Seriously…
Ramez thanks for the picture, I just reposted them again int he post above.
mark, u asked “How is a tree growing on land (public or private) illegal?”
growing a tree on private land is very different than growing it on public land for obvious reasons.
by the way, the municipality allows house owners to grow plants and trees outside their houses (on public land) but with conditions and pre approval. unfortunately, many people plant (and some build physical structures) on more public land than they are authorized to do which is what caused this entire problem to begin with and made the government start the “izala” process.
i’m not against planting trees, God knows we need them in Kuwait especially now more than ever, but i was just trying to say that there is a reason behind whats going 🙂
I am totally with the idea of removing illegally built structures but trees are part of nature, they are not human built structures.
the way some people are planting trees outside their houses here in Kuwait has become a way of claiming land that does not belong to them and slowly turning it as part of their private property. the same people are ignoring this fact and accusing the government of killing trees and getting your sympathy for it.
bu ziad: People claiming public property is theirs is one thing, killing trees just because people planted them on public property is another.
not really when people are claiming public property by planting trees on them
You can plant a tree and not claim that property thats why the problem here isn’t the tree its the people who are claiming public property as their own.
I think it’s a great way of teaching people a lesson. Don’t f**k with the government…now if we can only get them to be this efficient in other sectors of the government.
i heard the government are also planning on removing the hedges people have planted outside of their property too
people are not going and claiming anything.. they are planting trees on public property to informally expand their properties. that is the problem and that is why there is “izala”
J, I hope they do because the “chinco” sheds people put outside our houses are so god damn ugly.. I would rather suffer the heat then live in a street like that!
WHAT? you planted a TREE?
THIS IS DESERT !!!( KICKS TREES)
the regulations are stupid. 3 metres between each tree is what our house were told. not that this has anything to do with religion but to put things into perspective there is this saying from the prophet about not killing trees among other things. “لا تقلعوا شجرة ولا تقتلوا مدبراً ولا جريحاً ولا امرأة ولا طفلاً”
the government should do all it can for the benefit of Kuwait, not to satisfy some peoples craving of power. ok there shouldnt be anything built and also trees that obstruct traffic shud be gone, but not the trees that make kuwait a better place. if they wud just spend as much time planning for other things, maybe then we would really become a developed country
Actually what the government is doing is logically, they are informing people to meet the standards of doing things but the people are just haphazardly doing things the way they see it, the number of times I have seen accidents at streets in between houses to people just putting carpis trees so they can claim their own land privacy around their house and not even considering stop signs and or dead angles around corners.
With all respect but people have been warned plenty and we are all very good at saying we were not informed, but when the going gets tough we just boohoo things.
If people did things in the right manner followed rules the balidiya would not come and rip things down.
Yes we do have the weirdest laws sometimes when you think about it, but we still have to abide too it till someone sorts them out.
A perfect example of this is the building law, it’s perfectly okay for your to build and throw your dirt in the front of your street and the baladya wont make a fuss about it, but if you were to bring a garabage disposal container (7awya) you would be fined if you did not get permission to do so, whilst it’s perfectly alright for you to block drainage systems on the street from your building cement etc.
Go figure….
Bu Ziad, but the hedges would atleast provide some sort of privacy being in front of the property, and maybe cover up those chinco sheds :p
What doesnt make sense is that patch of gov’t land infront of a house is what makes a property expensive, for example, if you get a house looking onto a main road (ie: Damascus Street ) you get a relatively large amount of space to use as a garden or a parking area. as opposed to getting a house in a cramped part of the area and getting basically no space.
I’m all for the gov’t removing buildings/chabras/walls that are built on government property, but why would they cut down the hedges/trees ?
I remember there was also a poster of baba jaber (allah yir7ama) planting a Palm tree… it was supposed to encourage the people of kuwait to plant trees and make this country greener.
الوضع بهالديره كان في السابق من سيء الى اسوأ
وتطور الوضع وصرنا من اسوأ الى الاسوأ
حاليا احنا من الاسوأ الى الحضيض
بديت أشك انه احنا دوله فعليه
Lots of people seem be overlooking the main point.
People planting trees on curbs and on corners and doing anything to mess up any driver’s view on the street is a major problem. It’s not like we need any other obstacle; we all know how retarded the driving is in Kuwait to begin with. Having trees that create tricky blind spots are completely unnecessary, and avoidable by removing inappropriate plants.
In America, only the government plants on the public pavement infront of houses. Infact legally, houses need to get permits to even consider touching the pavement infront of their house.
In Kuwait, people complain about anything.
At the end of the day, plants need to be planted in the “right” place. Not on a heavily used corner turn, just because we want greenery.
Gosh. People are funny.
End of lame venting/explaining.
Instead of cutting down trees for whatever reason, the Government should fine the resident of the house. The land with the tree/trees should be declared under Municipality control. That way it would be sending a message to the residents not to enroach on public property.
As for wasting water on trees @ Blackbarook, I think washing cars & driveways everyday should be stopped. Do you know that the cost of purifying water in the Gulf is more expensive than refining petrol? You would think people waste less water being a desert but it’s the opposite. This might be to have an excuse like Tarsheed or several multi-million dollar campaigns to line the pockets of the high & mighty connected “consultants” in Kuwait.
Queensland in Australia has a water consumption limit of 200 litres per person & the average was 172 litres declared yesterday. Such things go to say how much we care about the environment.
BTW there was an archaic law of KD 500 fine for knocking down a tree in an accident. What happened to that?
Let them cut down the illegal hedges, grass, conocarpus trees. Those are young expendable plants, and they are often hazardous being on the edges of the road blocking traffic.
HOWEVER, it is the mature trees we ought to protect, sadly the izala teams do not take the age of the trees into consideration and bulldoze a deeply-rooted bird-nurturing 30 year old tree along with the young carpus trees.
Palms are a different story and are protected by an Amiri decree. They will likely not touch them and scare you into removing them yourself by giving off (false) warnings which you can just dismiss. If they do dare and remove your palms, photograph the act and go file a complaint at the police. Fines reach up to KD500 per palm as far as I heard.
Omg sometimes people can be so arragont. You plant a tree on a land thats not yours and when the government removs it you form a facebook group bitching about? Those dead trees are not the gov. fault, ITS YOURS!! And dont start on “we werent informed” thing. the gov. was basicly begging the citizines remove them on their own. posters, tv ads, newapapers and basicly everyone was talking about it.
Leave those trees alone 🙁
sij 7koma fathyaa .. !! y3ni kilish mako technic bl salfaa … yesheloon el khathar welyabes welzain welshain !!
In the first 2 pictures, it is very apparent that the trees were planted to create a private space from a public land.
Wasn’t there a similar crackdown on diwaniyas (or was it car parking sheds?).
Who said government is cutting down the tress?? Come to Ahmadi. Its the greenest spot in kuwait…well after “Green” Island ofcourse.
احنا دولة مؤقتة ……
it’s all about the parlament ,,,,,, stop them
c’mon ,,,, no one is against planiting trees but people are using it as fences to occupay public spaces next to their homes ,,, I think people cant just plant trees any where !? there are many roads blocked from these trees ,,, if they want to plant green let them do in in their land
and i agree with bu zaid:P
perhaps the government could allocate some land somewhere, and plant a sapling for every tree that they cut down.
That way the ecological balance is kept, and they get to enforce the laws too….
there is a way to cut the trees without killing it, but they r not doing it
In my area, Mishref block 5, the Municipality cut down the trees and destroyed the grass in patch of land I planted across from my house. They did the same to my neighbor’s patch but they did nothing about the several huge car ports that were built on government land as well. So how does it make sense to destroy plants yet areas where bricks were laid down and car ports built are not touched??
You’re fighting a losing battle- a dishdasha with a piece of paper, several bengalis and a digger will be coming your way soon and no amount of facebook pressure groups will change their minds.
there are regulation on planting trees mainly because big tree’s roots destroy power and water pipes; that said none of the trees in the pictures above would damage pipes buried one meter below ground.
Ramez @ 11:47 am – What is the way to cut a tree without killing it? I have studied Botany but I never came across such a paradox before 🙂
Taking it off from the root
Trees/hedges causing accidents just sounds like a lame excuse to me, i’ve never seen a tree big enough in kuwait to make a blind spot and cause car accidents. Maybe they should start blaming themselves instead of the environment ?
Why are we using J.C Bamford’s stuff for destroying nature? :\
Some people really don’t care about the future
this issue is seriously weird and unacceptable.. why is the goverment destroying what makes Kuwait desert looks more green, also we all know that trees make the dust lighter and we know that i cools the air by throwing Oxygen, what the hell is wrong with them.. :@ stop destroying nature!!! goverment property!!! this is bullshit
Those workers feehom difasha, they get in and out destroying everything as they go, seen them work. They didn’t clean up everything when they were done, at least get the job done right!
Ok this is stupid. I know they want to inforce the law but they have to do it smartly not cut-off trees 🙁
@ Ramez – It’s a tree, not a potted plant to take it out of probably 10 or 15 meters under the earth with it’s roots intact.
I do not see much use with Facebook groups because neither the mudirs nor the labourers use Facebook to keep track of Kuwait’s issues. It’s better to raise these problems with the local MP’s & the EPS.
we have 30+ year old trees outside our house. planted 1.5 meters from the road. will they be removed! baladiya went through our street several times and nothing happened thanks god!
now…do they tend to return to areas theyve already checked!
also what are the regulations and codes that apply to tree planting!