Life line

After a ten year project, Wadi Hanifah has become a municipal park.
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In a remarkable ten-year project, Riyadh’s Wadi Hanifah has gone from toxic sewage dump to municipal park. Middle East Architect reports.

For as long as Riyadh has been a settlement in the heart of the Arabian peninsula, Wadi Hanifah has been its lifeline.

But for decades the waterway that runs 100 kilometres through the Saudi capital has been a no go area for the people of Riyadh. Used variously as a rubbish dump, a rat run and a utilities corridor, millions of litres of sewage turned Wadi Hanifah from a gentle stream to a toxic river of sludge.

Today, the Wadi is barely recognisable as the filthy waterway it once was, thanks to a ten-year project instigated by the Riyadh Development Authority (ADA) and carried out by engineering firm Buro Happold. Wadi Hanifah has once again become a popular meeting place for families, while the outflow in the south of the city has become a habitat for birds, fish and snakes

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Meanwhile, the land on the banks of Wadi Hanifah – once fit for only rubbish and makeshift concrete roads – has become some of the most sought after real estate in downtown Riyadh. The problem for the local government is no longer how to use the Wadi, it is stopping developers from building on the valuable land that surrounds it.

“People would never come to Wadi Hanifah before this project was conceived because they saw it as a place with negative feelings for the people of Riyadh. It was seen as a dump. It was not a place that people go to enjoy,” explained Alan Travers, Buro Happold principal and director of rivers and coastal projects.

“That’s been entirely turned around now and the demand for people to come to this place is just enormous,” he added.
Prior to 2001, Riyadh had exploited Wadi Hanifah in almost every way possible. In some areas it had been used as a quarry and in others as a municipal dump, conveniently intersecting the city. In other areas utilities companies had erected power lines and sewage pipes, and construction companies dumped bricks, metal and other waste. Wadi Hanifah was used and abused, and then abandoned.

“It’s similar to many rivers in Europe and the UK where they were traditionally been used as a place where you throw your waste. In the same way as many of the great European cities turned their backs on the river, Riyadh turned its back on Wadi Hanifah,” Travers explained.

The ADA had commissioned a number of studies into what to do with the Wadi prior to 2001, but the difficulty was the sheer size of the problem. Over 70 km of Wadi Hanifah is inside Riyadh, and an area of around 4,500km2 use the Wadi as a waste water outlet. Buro Happold removed a staggering 1.25 million m3 of dumped material from Wadi Hanifah during the project.

“In both planning and practical terms the problem the ADA was facing was how on earth to reverse that level of degradation,” Travers said. “I think the problem almost seemed too big to solve.”

Following substantial research and planning lasting over two years, construction work on the project began in 2003. The first step was to clean up the waterway, remove the rubbish, relocate the utilities and makeshift roads and plan the space that would be created as a result. The Wadi had become a dump because of its convenient intersection of the urban sprawl of Riyadh, now it would become equally convenient as a park in a city that was in dire need of public space.

“One of the things about Riyadh is that it is a city is desperately lacking in green space, more so than any other place that I have been to,” Travers said. “When you see the number of people who come the Wadi now on the weekend, the place is log jammed with cars because people are desperate to come to this place and enjoy it. It’s become an incredible success.”