Groasis Waterboxx - The Importance of Growing Native Plants in Difficult Areas

1. Infra Oman, one of the exhibitions organised by Al Nimr Expo, has been named the most admired event in the Middle East at the CMO Asia - Event Industry Awards held in Singapore. Salim Omar al Hashmi, CEO of Al Nimr Expo, accepted the award and said, “For a young Omani exhibition company to be recognised and honoured internationally is a proven testimony of our team’s efforts and hard work. I thank HE Zakariya Hamed al Saadi, Oman’s Honorary Consul General in Singapore, for attending the awards ceremony and making our achieve- ment more significant.” Melwin D’cunha, director of Al Nimr Expo, said, “This is the first exhibition company not only from Oman but the Middle East to win such an accolade. This award follows the Al Roya Award for the Best Business Enterprise - Private Sector in January 2012 held in Oman and the Oman Web Awards for the Best Website in the Event Management Category held in December 2011.” Jenitha Martin, project manager, said, “Infra Oman is the ideal plat- form for all contractors and develop- ers to meet, thus giving them an opportunity to present their projects and achievements and source their requirements. Infra Oman has grown significantly since its debut last year.” Given Oman’s location in one of the most arid areas in the world, it is no surprise that water production and consumption is a concern. One way to reduce consumption is looking at the type of plants being planted for aesthetic purposes and through the Groasis waterboxx. Clive Winbow, project manager at Ample Harvest - that distributes the box - and author of the book Native Plants of Oman - An Introduction: With Notes for Gardeners, hopes to encourage a new way of growing plants. The Groasis waterboxx was developed by Pieter Hoff and went on to win him the Popular Science Green Tech Best of What’s New Innovation of the Year Award in 2010. It works by sheltering saplings from the sun and provid- ing water to them through rain and condensation that is delivered in small amounts. On the Groasis waterboxx, Clive said, “Ample Harvest wants to spread the use of the box as a means of people planting native trees in wild areas of the country, which have either always been desert or have become desert through overgrazing and such.” The main purpose, he said, of this is to combat desertification. One of the advantages of the Groasis waterboxx is that these don’t need any fol- low-up maintenance, so once they are planted you can walk away and be fairly sure the box will do its job. Aside from being used in wild areas, Clive hopes the box will be used in beautification and landscaping inside and around the capital area so that people can see how native plants can be grown with little water and no irrigation. Native plants are also shown to be beneficial for local birds and wildlife, and Clive added, “What you are battling against is a prejudice that foreign plants grow quicker, are greener and have bigger flowers. But nobody likes to say we can’t have a certain tree because it uses too much water. All the Gulf countries are spending too much money on water purifica- tion and water for irrigation and this is basically unsustainable.” Ample Harvest is currently involved in a project being run by Dhofar University that looks at how the box works in a number of planting areas on the jebel above Salalah which has been affected through overgrazing by camels. The project began in June shortly before the khareef and Clive will be visiting the area soon to see how the boxes are doing and what the next steps should be. He admits it has been hard trying to show some people that this project is for their benefit in the long run. The biggest problems when it comes to planting in Oman is the salinity and aridity of the soil, plus the temperature that plants have to deal with. But from earlier projects, it looks as if the box deals with these issues. At the company’s plantation in Amerat, 70 per cent of the plants that were planted in March at the start of the hot season have survived. “I think it’s a remarkable achieve- ment given what we have put the plants through,” he said. Oman has around 1,200 native plants, but of those, Clive said that the trees are the most important as once they are established, other plants can grow under them. On the 06SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 news ISSUE496 Ask a chef Email: lifestyle@apexmedia.co.om www.theweek.co.om email: theweek@apexmedia.co.om 24799388 GOING NATIVEClive Winbow talks about the importance of growing native plants in difficult areas Emma Abdulaal theweek@apexmedia.co.om WRONG IMPRESSION What you are battling against is a prejudice that foreign plants grow quicker, are greener and have bigger flowers - Clive Winbow BankMuscat organised a workshop on ATM fraud prevention addressed by Douglas Russell, expert in ATM fraud and security risk management, recently. The workshop held at the bank’s head office was attended by the head of economic crime, Royal Oman Police, senior officials representing various banks in Oman and frontline staff dealing AL NIMR EXPO WINS AWARD FOR INFRA OMAN BANKMUSCAT HOSTS WORKSHOP ON ATM FRAUD PREVENTION

2. news 07SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 ISSUE496 READER’S RECIPES Email: lifestyle@apexmedia.co.om 24799388 email: theweek@apexmedia.co.om www.theweek.co.om future, Clive said, “We hope to start new projects and I am very hopeful about introducing it to some of the high dunes in the Empty Quarter, which we would have to do using a different type of tree. “The type of trees we can grow there would be very different to what we can grow in say the coastal area or in the mountains. I am very exci- ted about this Dhofar project, because Dhofar is somewhere with exceptional flora that is having a bad time and it is man’s fault.” Omantel organises workshop on IT security Omantel organised a workshop on information security at its head office last week. A number of information security professionals from the sultanate and other countries participated in the workshop, a press release said. The workshop was part of Omantel’s plans to enrich the ICT sector and update professionals on the latest develop- ments in this important field. It is also one of the important programmes in the agenda of the company’s Oman Telecommu- nication Institute, which will be officially launched this month. The workshop included a number of important papers by renowned speakers. Dr Badr al Manthri of ITA presented a working paper on cloud computing, the use of computing resources that are delivered as a service over a net- work. Berry Luis, CEO of Surprise, a specialised company in the field of information security, training and consultancy with over 40 years experience in the field of comput- ers, presented a paper on ISO27002 in Mobile Phones Technologies Audit. The second session included a paper by Albert J Marcille, CEO of Business Automation Consultancy, on information security management, while Berry made a presenta- tion on protection control. Manal al Harthi, project lead, said, “IT security is of a growing global interest and offering of this workshop comes in line with the company’s efforts to keep pace with the recent development in the ICT field. We are thrilled that we have been able to attract global and local professionals to speak here.” with operations, ATM management, card operations, security and audit, a press release said. The workshop provided an overview of the primary attack methods that criminals deploy against ATM terminals and systems. The workshop’s objective was to obtain a strategic overview and to recognise the most common cate- gories of criminal devices employed in ATM fraud. Discussions covered various ATM fraud and security threats, financial risk to the ATM channel, reputational and conse- quential challenges. Waleed al Hashar, group general manager - corporate services, said, “BankMuscat is proud to host this workshop aimed at addressing cyber crimes and ATM fraud which have assumed global ramifications involving financial and reputational risks to banking and financial insti- tutions. Therefore, it is important for all of us in the banking and financial sector to contribute and supplement government efforts to tackle financial crimes. The subject assumes great importance, so the workshop was organised by the bank to facili- tate exchange of experience and information on cyber crimes and ATM fraud.” Douglas is renowned for global experience in creating and implementing

Groasis Waterboxx - The Importance of Growing Native Plants in Difficult Areas

Groasis Waterboxx - The Importance of Growing Native Plants in Difficult Areas

Groasis Waterboxx - The Importance of Growing Native Plants in Difficult Areas

Recommended

More Related Content

More from School Vegetable Gardening - Victory Gardens

More from School Vegetable Gardening - Victory Gardens(20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded(20)

Groasis Waterboxx - The Importance of Growing Native Plants in Difficult Areas