We often hear titles being given to many cities, whether they are regional or international, for example, The Lion City (Singapore), the city of 100 towers (Prague), the City of Fog (London), and many other titles that may sometimes come off as odd, such as the title given to the city of Beijing in China "Forbidden City". These titles are either given by the inhabitants of these original cities or those who come as tourists, for historical, cultural or other reasons.
Let's go back to the title of this article "Green City", what does Green City mean? Green city is the city that achieves the highest standards of combating environmental pollution to be a healthy city for human living, and to become a healthy city, or in other words, "Green City", the World Health Organization requires the achievement of 80 standard to win this title "The Green City". Pollution is not the product of this modern age, but its beginning was the Stone Age when man began to leave bad effects on the environment. It is strange and surprising that the increase of civilization and evolution, in return means an increase in pollution rates, as it was said that everything has its price, unfortunately this time the price is very high! The price may even be the lives of the generations ahead.
Our Islamic Religion has urged us to take into account the environment and preserve it, and not to spoil it in any way. Islam urged us to reconstruct the land, plant, and not waste. Almost no place on Earth is free of pollution, it is shocking that our Arab Region is one of the most polluted areas. According to statistics from the World Health Organization and the International Energy Agency, the Gulf countries occupy the top six positions, overtaking India and China as the most toxic countries in the world. However, this does not mean that we hide the other side and the attempts of Gulf countries to fight pollution of all kinds and forms. For example, Sharjah City in the United Arab Emirates has achieved the standards approved by the World Health Organization for green cities and thus became the first city in the Middle East to get this accreditation, so Sharjah is considered a green city.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, are making serious attempts to combat pollution of all kinds through the establishment of ministries, authorities and research centers serving the environment, and creating awareness programs, whether audible, readable or visual, aimed at raising public awareness of the importance of preserving the environment. Moreover, the Government of the Kingdom represented by the Ministry of Education has added environmental curricula in education to increase the environmental awareness of the student, and imposed strict environmental laws on government and private enterprises in order to stimulate the public and private sector to use environmental methods that reduce all types of pollution.
Because I am one of the sons of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, I hope that one day my city will become a "Green City". This can only be done with the cooperation and solidarity of all and following the strict regulations set by the Saudi government to combat pollution.