(MENAFN- Jordan Times) The project entailing planting trees along the two sides of the Desert Highway is a long-overdue good idea.
The Ministry of Agriculture has reportedly decided to embark on the plan, which will both beautify the highly used road linking Amman and Aqaba and make it safer for drivers by endeavouring to prevent sand dunes from covering the highway, as it happens in windy weather and often leads to ugly accidents.
When concluded, the project should be accompanied by the establishment of clean, attractive rest areas where travellers can stop to refresh and rest, the latter very important for long-haul drivers who are often reported to have been involved in accidents for having fallen asleep while driving.
It is difficult to find places in the world that do not have adequate rest areas on important highways connecting different parts of a country.
Enabling drivers and their passengers to take a break from the stressful driving for long distances is important. If it comes with greening a long stretch of the country with much-needed vegetation, it is even better.
Jordan lacks green zones. Making the Desert Highway more attractive could encourage more people to embark on domestic tourism, yet care must be taken not to transform the forested area into picnicking places, both to prevent littering and fire, and to spare travellers the sore sight now blighting an important area in Amman, around the Shaab circle, which, come sunset, is taken over by droves of street-blocking hookah-smoking and barbecuing people, an unacceptable scene in the heart of the capital.
In the case of the Desert Highway, even if the envisaged project helps only to cut down on road accidents and reduce fatalities and injuries, it deserves praise.
Afforestation, however, must not stop there. Other roads in Jordan could be rendered safer for divers and more pleasant to travel along by benefiting from the same treatment, as could residential areas in all cities of the country, which sorely miss vegetation.
There has been much talk about making Amman greener, for example, instead of letting it be what some call a forest of stones.
Making the entire Kingdom greener cannot be that costly. There will be, no doubt, volunteers who would help, and the benefit would be worth the investment.
The government might consider adopting a national plan for this purpose and make a more determined effort to change as much of Jordan's landscape as possible.
The Desert Highway is as good place to start as any. But municipalities should continue the effort.
The fruit of such endeavour would not take long to show and in a few years, Jordan, much of it at least, could be a different, greener place to see.
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