Dubai, Sep 29 (IANS): All parks in Dubai will soon use solar-powered lights in a bid to reduce consumption of electricity and use more natural resources, a top official has said.

"All lights in our parks will be solar. We have already started implementing it and gradually will cover all the parks. This is one of our many initiatives towards sustainable development," Hussain Nasser Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality told Gulf News.

Lootah said cities of the 21st century must evolve into centres of progress that serve as forces for national and global advancement.

The municipality finished work on a park in Al Sofouh area which uses solar lighting systems. Built on an area of 1.55 hectares, the park was the first to use this technology in Dubai.

"Dubai is one of the most beautiful cities and has seen a lot of development in the past. This has given a good quality of life but there have been side effects of this development like rise in per capita garbage production, high petrol consumption and high electricity," he said.

"We need to ensure a sustainable development and adopt more environment-friendly ways like recycling sewage water and using it for irrigation," he said.

The municipality is also working to convert all its official cars from petrol to gas.

"We have already converted five cars. All our 1,000 cars will run on compressed natural gas (CNG)," Lootah said.