Bahrain municipal officials are working on a project on hydroponic gardens, where plants are grown without soil, in a bid to turn concrete jungles green.

Work is going ahead to build a training centre and exhibition for hydroponic gardening at the Salmaniya Garden and it will take two months to have the place set up, said senior government officials.

Soon the Kingdom's residents will be able to attend free workshops on hydroponic gardens.

The Manama Municipal Council has set aside BD4,000 ($10,612) for the scheme, besides shouldering the construction cost of the centre and exhibition.

However, the council is willing to cover additional costs depending on the interest of people to learn about the hydroponic experience.

Bahrain's five municipal councils are now set for a non-obligatory introduction of the scheme in homes and buildings free of charge to gain interest from the public.

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.

A trial of the scheme held at selected social centres in co-ordination with the Social Development Ministry has been successfully completed.

Councils have already agreed on a deal to finance the scheme with Tamkeen and is awaiting a memorandum of understanding to be signed.

'We have already prepared a draft on how to promote hydroponics in Bahrain and a specialised company has been assigned to handle the responsibility of offering training and showcasing it to the public,' said council vice-chairman Mohammed Mansoor.

'The company has selected the Salmaniya Garden for the scheme and they want to set up a training centre and exhibition there and we have agreed to fund it from the Manama Municipality coffers,' he said.

'The facility will include a greenhouse-like structure and a fish tank where fish soil will be moved with water through tubes and distilled on plants and then circulated again to the tank.'

Mansoor said the council's main aim behind introducing hydroponics in Bahrain was to make people start loving planting and turning the practice into a daily lifestyle requirement.

'Only a few consider planting important, like wearing clothes, combing hair and eating, despite it being the source of beauty and oxygen,' he said.

'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 to train those interested, whether Bahrainis or expatriates,' he added.

'A time-frame is currently being planned for non-obligatory implementation in homes and buildings, which we will coincide with the end of training for the first batch of volunteers.'

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

'It will become obligatory around a year from now with the introduction of a joint municipal regulation and a national law that is already being drawn up.'

Mansoor said 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.'

According to Mansoor, the new scheme would ensure that people cannot come up with an excuse that they don't have backyards to grow plants.

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

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