Umm Salal Tree and Turf Nursery: The heart of Qatar World Cup

Qatar’s idea of organising the 2022 FIFA World Cup was not based on a purely sport vision, but rather on comprehensive visions aimed at leaving a sustainable legacy in all sectors.And this was achieved through the establishment of Umm Salal Nursery for the cultivation of trees and grass to meet the needs of the World Cup stadiums and facilities, and which will be a sustainable environmental legacy, in line with QNV 2030 to safeguard the legacy of the Qatari environment for future generations.The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) Landscape and Sport Turf Management Senior Manager, Eng Yasser al-Mulla, said that the idea of establishing the nursery project has come to meet the needs of the World Cup of turf, especially as Qatar suffers from a lack of cosmetic turfs outside the stadium. But with regard to the sport turf grown in the stadiums, it was provided at Aspire through the establishment of the research centre and experiments on sport turf.In an interview with Qatar News Agency (QNA), al-Mulla said the nursery is specialised in the production of seedlings, shrubs and plants, and is planned to become a public park after the World Cup, but its main task now is to cultivate the areas around the World Cup stadiums, which are more concerned about the heritage and which is interesting for visitors and fans who will come to Doha to watch the World Cup, as well as saving the cost of turf as the meter outside of the nursery is negligible compared to the previously imported from abroad.Al-Mulla added that Qatar will provide 8 World Cup main stadiums and 48 stadiums in the training sites during the World Cup period for the participating teams, which requires 16,000 metres of cosmetic turf to cover the outdoor areas of these stadiums. “This has made us cultivate the outdoor areas of each stadium before the project is completed, so that the green areas are finished at the same time as the completion of the project,” he said.Al-Mulla said that all the projects of the SC are targeting legacy, which is available in the nursery located north of the city of Doha in the area of Umm Salal next to the sewage treatment plant, on a land area of about 880,000 square metres.The nursery contains more than 16,000 trees of 60 different types known in Qatar and various countries of the world. The nursery includes more than 670,000 shrubs, and one type of grass planted on an area of 425,000 square metres. Al-Mulla added that the nursery, which opened in February 2018, contains giant greenhouses for the rehabilitation of trees that come to Qatar from around the world, as the transfer may take months. “So the tree should be placed in the nurseries rehabilitation places until it regains its normal state, and then transferred to the green areas in the nursery and to be transferred later to the green areas in the stadiums”, he said.He added that the nursery is surrounded by huge trees used as windbreakers to protect plants from dust and weeds. The area of artificial turf in the nursery, over 425,000 sq m, is harvested three times a year, with a total production reaching about 300,000 sq m, which will be utilised by transporting them to the World Cup stadiums or to events organised by the country every year, such as the National Sport Day and Qatar National Day.The nursery includes two large lakes with an area of about 30,000 sq m, which can provide sufficient water reserve for nine days for the nursery, despite the presence of a desalination plant next to it. But all the plans of the SC always include a strategy and an alternative strategy, so that if there is a problem in the desalination plant, life continues in the nursery for nine days.Al-Mulla added that the second stage of Al Bayt Stadium, which includes a cosmetic turf over an area of 420,000 sq m, has been completed almost entirely, and the grass plating operations at Al Wakrah Stadium, which is due to be completed soon, will officially open this month. The planting was also launched at Al Rayyan Stadium and Lusail Stadium.Al-Mulla explained that the sports turf needs a method of maintenance different from the cosmetic turf, where the grass must always be small by cutting it on a daily basis, while the cosmetic turf can have deep roots, which was taken into consideration when selecting the turf to be planted in the stadiums of the World Cup, where out of 36 species of grass were tested in exceptional circumstances. As for the resistance tests carried out on the selected turf of the World Cup stadiums, they were divided into two stages before and after planting. A pre-planting phase was followed by irrigation, fertilisation and moisture absorption, and the post-agriculture phase was focused on the simulation of the 28-day World Cup, and the resistance tests were successful by making the same number of matches as possible in the first round (6 matches), with the rate increasing to 10 matches, as well as other manual and electronic tests to measure the turf resistance, in addition to taking into account the opinion and observations of players who used the turf to be included in the reports to the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA).Al-Mulla stressed that the amount of information and expertise that the SC has obtained from experiments on the turf qualities, is important and does not exist in the majority of surrounding countries. “These have contributed significantly to the turf selection, which will be used in the World Cup stadiums, and which we called the “Qatar’s turf of the World Cup stadiums”, after having undergone several tests and which FIFA confirmed and agreed to officially,” he added.Al-Mulla stressed that the turf of Qatar’s playgrounds will not be affected by the climate in the future in light of the successful tests conducted in all circumstances, unlike most of the stadiums in the region which are suffering from problems.Al-Mulla stresses that the nature of the work in the nursery is conducted accurately according to an integrated system, where human labour is more specialised in the cultivation of trees and plants, while machines have the largest share in the cultivation and harvesting of grass, and a single herb harvesting machine makes 5,000 sq m of grass in eight hours.Al-Mulla stressed that the idea of investing in the turf nursery is presented in the future after the World Cup, but there is no decision in this matter, especially that there are many organisations specialised in this field, as well as that the nursery has a schedule requirements for each stadium and each project of the World Cup, and plans to produce turf during this period to meet all requirements.