City officials in Mejarda, a Saudi town on the border with Yemen, decided that things needed a quick sprucing up before the visit of a VIP. And so, the day before his arrival, workers descended on the city’s parks and lawns to spray paint the grass a bright, lively green.

Fayçal Bin Khaled, the Emir of El Assir province, was scheduled to visit the town of Mejarda on January 11. Local residents filmed the hasty preparations for this visit, which included spray painting the grass bright green.

According to locals, workers used paint to touch up all of the gardens and green spaces along the route that the emir would take through town.

The scene was caught on camera by several witnesses, who uploaded the videos on social media. The videos were widely criticised and ridiculed.
On Thursday, January 12, city officials released a statement confirming that they did have the grass colored. However, they were careful to note that the product used wasn’t spray paint but a speciality dye widely available in garden supply stores.

Other social media users complained that town officials had also undertaken numerous other quick-fix construction projects in the lead-up to the emir’s visit.

(France24)