Harnessing the elements

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BK: We took six or seven months locating the Bermuda grass from a specific farm in Pike Creek, Georgia. One of the first things I did when was to build a 100,000 square foot nursery for us to grow the grass we needed, and then whenever we were growing areas, we simply harvested from our own nursery.

That was absolutely necessary because you cannot import that amount of grass. We needed to control the environment in which that grass was grown; we wanted to control the percolation rates; we wanted to control the type and quality of the grass on the surface. We’ve got in excess of 450,000 square metres of bark mulch and 3,600 mature trees. I have trees out there that are 11-12 metres high already.

fmME: What are your water requirements?

BK: We have 20,000 linear metres of mainline ranging from six to 24 inches in diameter. We have 70,000 metres of lateral irrigation piping out there. We have 17,000 metres of power cable and 20,000 metres of communication cable. On just those two courses, we have 4,000 sprinkler heads.

During construction, we were using 4.5-5.0 million gallons of water per day. Once the grass matured, those numbers came down. We expect the cost of water to be about AED6 million a year. Maintenance will be about AED 8 million a year.

But it’s important to keep in mind that every gallon is treated water. Nakheel is building its own sewage treatment plant on the project site, which is big enough to supply water to the entire 1,357 hectares..

fmME: Some of those numbers are astronomical. In the era of sustainability, do you feel you have to justify them?

BK: I think you do. For people who don’t understand golf courses, they can appear to be wasteful of resources and energy. I have a totally reversed opinion. On a golf course, you have the most wonderful natural environment. Up until 3-4 weeks ago, we had about 20 flamingoes living on the golf course. Next year, when they come back, we’ll have double that. I had a family of swans arrive 18 months ago and they’ve never left. I have tens of thousands of bird species living here.

Greg Norman and chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem were founding members of the Environmental Institute of Golf. We’ve been very conscious of being mindful of where we were going with it. One 18-hole golf course, by photosynthesis, will provide enough oxygen for 100,000 people per annum.

This is a major facility for the environment. Even for non-golfers, this is a beautiful landscape.

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