Oman environment: Salalah Rotana sets up plant nursery to boost sustainability

Salalah: In an attempt to reduce water consumption and promote conservation efforts in and around Salalah, the Salalah Rotana resort has set up a plant nursery.
It will help boost long-term sustainability of the region as well as the hotel.
“We used to buy plants in bulk and use them in the hotel,” said Rhoda Nuhu, the hotel’s Assistant Director for Marketing and Communications. “We used them for landscaping because our hotel is quite large, as well as in the kitchen, where we use herbs in our food.
“However, we realised that this was not cost effective, so our engineering team came up with the idea to grow the plants ourselves,” she told the Times of Oman.
“It took three months to set up, and although we will only start with plants that we will be using for landscaping purposes, we will soon also grow herbs that we can use by ourselves. We buy young plants, as well as seeds, and grow them here. This will help us in the long-term.”
Spread over a 30 by 30 metre area, the nursery features over 200 different types of plants. The effort is the latest among the hotel’s corporate and social initiatives. Salalah Rotana marked the Oman Environment Day by planting trees in the city, in addition to organising a voluntary beach clean-up.
The nursery uses a drip irrigation system that feeds water directly to the root of the plants, as opposed to a standard sprinkler system. This has reduced the utility bills of the hotel by 20 per cent.
“Earlier, we used to have a system that sprayed water all over the place and a large amount of it used to go waste,” added Nuhu. “The new system means we are using less water.
“We have had very good feedback from the visitors to the hotel, and a lot of them come to the nursery to take pictures of it,” she said. “I think all the hotels which have the means to do something like this must do so, because this is very good for the environment in the long-run. In Salalah, we have the Khareef festival season when there is plenty of rainfall and the weather is great, so it’s very easy to grow plants here.”
“As climate change continues to remain a global speak, we recognise that the journey to a more sustainable environment will be achieved only by our collective efforts,” said Hossam Kamal, General Manager of Salalah Rotana Resort. “We are doing our part towards ensuring a safer environment.
“Our plant nursery signifies a key milestone in our sustainability efforts, demonstrating our commitment to our environment and all the stakeholders,” he added.