Homes and buildings in Bahrain will be obliged to have hydroponic gardens, where plants are grown without soil, in upcoming months, it has emerged.

The scheme is being spearheaded by the Manama Municipal Council and will be implemented in all five governorates.

It is currently under trial at selected social centres in co-ordination with the Social Development Ministry.

An initial study presented to the council yesterday stated that the scheme had proved successful.

A full-scale implementation will be launched within the next few months, but a date hasn't been set as councillors are waiting for a detailed plan to be drawn up.

Councils have already agreed on a deal to finance the scheme with Tamkeen, which is awaiting a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed.

Bahrain's five municipal councils will introduce it now as a non-obligation to homes and buildings.

This followed the Manama Municipal Council yesterday agreeing to initially work with a company to provide 300 interested residents in Manama with training.

The scheme's launch will be followed by a new municipal obligation that all multi-storey commercial buildings in Manama should have rooftop gardens, with a national law currently being drawn up.

Councils believe that this will further help promote green areas in present concrete jungles.

'Our main aim behind introducing hydroponics in Bahrain is to make people start loving planting and turning it into a daily lifestyle requirement like wearing clothes, combing hair and eating,' said council services and public utilities committee chairman Adnan Al Nuaimi.

'Only a few consider planting important, despite it being the source of beauty and oxygen.

'We have already tested hydroponics in different social centres in Bahrain and it has proved a success according to an initial study presented to us and now we are working on training 300 people in it.

'A time-frame is currently being planned for non-obligatory implementation in homes and buildings, which we will start with very soon.'

He said that Tamkeen has agreed to fund the scheme, which it believed would provide jobseekers with the possibility of exploring new markets and open up new businesses.

'It will become obligatory within months from now with the introduction of a joint municipal regulation and a national law is already being drawn up,' he said.

Al Nuaimi said that a number of people had already started the method at their homes or buildings with certain seeds and crops.

'There are six basic types of hydroponic systems - wick, water culture, ebb and flow (flood and drain), drip (recovery or non-recovery), nutrient film technique (NFT) and aeroponic,' he said.

'There are hundreds of variations on these basic types of systems, but all hydroponic methods are a variation or combination of these six.'

He said the new scheme would ensure that people cannot come up with the excuse that they don't have backyards.

'Hydroponic gardening can be done anywhere and anytime, even in places people don't think it is possible,' he said.

'It can be done in a tiny courtyard, in a tiered system or in a garage with no sunlight at all.'-TradeArabia News Service