Aga Khan awards the Wadi Hanifa reclamation project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with top honors.
Typically the Aga Khan Award for Architecture is reserved for just that – socially transformative buildings constructed in areas that have a strong Muslim presence. But this year, Aga Khan also recognized Saudi’s Wadi Hanifa Watershed project for its contribution to society.
And it really is a watershed moment for the country whose water resources are deeply limited. Wetlands throughout the Middle East have suffered from poor management, leading to negative consequences for both the environment and public health. But Saudi Arabia’s sparkling initiative demonstrates that recreation and ecology can flow in harmony.
After years of deterioration, Wadi Hanifa has been restored to its former glory as an attractive, balanced ecosystem. The Moriyama and Teshima and Bur Happold were tasked with transforming a turbid zone overflowing with construction debris into a safe watershed that could double as a healthy recreational facility.
To achieve this, they removed 1.25 million cubic meters of construction debris, cleaned up other industrial waste, restored the local habitat, and cleaned up the basin’s polluted water. They also reorganized a system of roads and power lines that were infringing upon the surface area.
By installing stone weirs, the team managed to encourage the growth of necessary microorganisms that in turn increase oxygen levels, resulting in reductions of certain kinds of harmful bacteria. Combined with a downstream Periphyton Benthic Substrate Devices (APBS), this bioremediation project treats wastewater the way nature intended.
And it’s beautiful, giving local Saudis and tourists a respite from an endless desert. Now that! is what we call sustainable.
:: Inhabitat
More on wetlands in the Middle East:
Egypt To Re-Think Wastewater Treatment
Eco-friendly Sewage Treatment Comes to the West Bank
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
I couldn’t agree more about making the space available to everyone! Can you maybe give me some examples of water bodies in Oman that are under threat? Any news on whether these problems are being addressed?
Oman has similar problems to the ones Saudi dealt with here. Probably in relation to the size and shape of Oman , they are more pressing. The best thing about the Saudi on is that they appear to have allocated the use of the area for the resident population, rather than as is increasingly being done in Oman allocating coastal areas only to hotels.