BAHRAINI Redha Al Mandeel refuses to give up on his dream of seeing five million trees planted across the country - despite little progress three years after launching the campaign.
The 70-year-old Saar Group of Companies managing director first shared his hopes of a greener environment for his homeland during an interview with the GDN in 2007.
However, three years down the line he finds his dying wish remains as distant as ever.
Mr Al Mandeel has spent the last few years single-handedly supervising an increase in greenery in his Karzakan neighbourhood.
The semi-retired environmentalist has spent up to BD400 out of his own pocket to have hundreds of trees planted along both sides of a 1km road in the area.
In total, he has already planted more than 1,000 trees in Ma'ameer factories and near Alba in the last 20 years, including around 300 since 2007.
But Mr Al Mandeel's pride and glory remains his 2.5-acre Karzakan farm, which houses cows, goats, ducks, peacocks, parrots and turkeys.
It is full of green plants and tree nurseries, a sight that has attracted many birds and visitors for across Bahrain.
"The greenery I introduced has attracted people from the villages to come for a walk under the shade and beauty of the trees," said Mr Al Mandeel.
"They also come with their horses for a ride.
"They take advantage of the fact that the crab apple and almond trees are fruiting, so they stroll and pick them from the trees.
"I try to grow as much fruit and shade trees in the area as possible.
"It is a very nice feeling when people come to visit and enjoy nature, this area is now popular."
However, although the number of visitors to his farm has increased, Mr Al Mandeel says his green message does not seem to be reaching the authorities.
"The government has done a tremendous thing by recycling drainage water that goes into Tubli," he said.
"For the past few years the water has been cleaned and redistributed to farms for usage.
"However for Bahrain to successfully become greener we need a dedicated department and dedicated officials to govern the issue.
"We should start planting trees on a massive scale on every road.
"It should be a project through the auspices of the local municipality and later spread to schoolchildren to involve them in the greening.
"We can create nurseries in local farms so that people can start planting trees in roads.
"We can also use the shallow areas of the sea water to create ponds for fish and shrimp like they have successfully done in India and Sri Lanka.
"We could have a completely integrated environmental system if it is initiated by the government."
Mr Al Mandeel said the need to introduce such projects was urgent, not just to help beautify Bahrain but to improve public health.
"Time is running out. Climate change has started and it's happening very fast," he said. "We need to reverse the trend."
Message
"Greening areas also improves the temperature, creates more oxygen for citizens and thus people will end up with improved health.
"It is the only hope for the future generation - we cannot do it until we start soon.
"I really hope someone hears my message," he said.