A major environmental rehabilitation project in the heart of Riyadh shows that the city is serious about cleaning up its act
It is a cool Friday afternoon in Wadi Hanifa. Families picnic on swathes of green grass, while migratory birds flutter between the luxuriant tree canopies and the manmade river, which meanders through the valley, fed by the seasonal rains which fall sporadically in the catchment area of Saudi Arabia's Central Region.
This green belt, part of a 120 km long valley which bisects the metropolis of nearly six million inhabitants from north to south, is the lungs of the kingdom's largest metropolis and a key leisure destination for residents. But it wasn't always so - less than a decade ago it was dying, a dumping ground for mounds of industrial and municipal waste, an ecological disaster and a public health hazard, particularly when the wadi was in flood.
Responding to unsightly environmental crisis, and as part of its broader plans to make the city more liveable, the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) launched the Wadi Hanifa Restoration Project. The objectives were simple, even if the rehabilitation project was anything but - to purge the valley of harmful and toxic waste, and to manage the water flowing through it, harnessing it as a recreational feature rather than a potential urban menace.
All told, 500,000 cubic metres of waste was removed, and 10 million cubic metres of wadi bed cleaned, at a total estimated cost of approximately $100 million. As well as hard infrastructure like dams being built, the project had regulatory elements too: limits were placed on land use along the wadi, and commercial activities such as quarrying were banned. Such was the project's success that it was awarded the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, which recognises concepts such as conservation, restoration and community development.
"Wadi Hanifa is a priority project for the ADA but is actually part of a much bigger vision," explains Fadi Aristo Hatoum, the general manager of Riyadh-based United Maintenance & Contracting Company (Unimac), which was one of a team of contractors which worked closely together as a team to deliver the project.
Born and bred in the Saudi capital, Hatoum has both a personal and professional vested interest in projects like Wadi Hanifa, and cannot speak highly enough of the ADA's efforts to overcome the challenges of this rapidly-expanding urban centre and create a truly world-class city - with the amenities to match - in the geographic heart of Saudi Arabia.
While over four decades Unimac's clients have included the General Authority for Civil Aviation, the Royal Saudi Air Force, the Princess Noora University and King Saud University projects, infrastructure in and around King Khaled International Airport and Abu Bakr Road in Riyadh, it is with the ADA that the company of more than 800 employees has made a name for itself in the city, providing value-engineered solutions on a range of infrastructure projects.
The company has in particular built its reputation building the roads, highways, airport, general infrastructure and housing projects in the city since the 1970s.
"The ADA has been given the carte blanche to do whatever it takes to make Riyadh a world city, and we're honoured to support their long-term vision for the city's infrastructure development," Hatoum says.
"The really impressive and refreshing thing is that the ADA is not just talking the talk. They are investing, and investing in quality, whether it's the hand picked, highly talented technical teams that work with them to conceive and deliver their strategy or the contractors that work with them.
"There has always been an air of exclusivity for any contractor working with the ADA, and that is not always the case with other government institutions in the kingdom," Hatoum points out.
Unimac's work on Wadi Hanifa was the result of a strategic decision taken in 2009 to extend the business into environmental rehabilitation services The decision has paid off - since then, the company has been commissioned to work on similar remediation projects for the ADA at other wadi locations in Riyadh, while it has also been involved in rehabilitating the deserts of northern Saudi Arabia, which were physically scarred during the first Gulf War more than 20 years ago, for the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME).
Hatoum assumed the top management role at Unimac in 2006, and has helped oversee expansion of services into both the Western and Eastern Regions of Saudi Arabia.
But it is the Central Region, and the capital city, where it all began, and where the company continues to flex its muscles on new infrastructure developments now being fast-tracked by the likes of the ADA. "Over the last five years we have decided to strategically grow the business to cope with increased demand," Hatoum reflects.
"This involved serious re-investment into the company to acquire new equipment, new sources of raw materials and recruitment of new staff. We are in the process of developing more crushing sites for rock aggregate and will select only the highest quality quarries for mining and extraction. From quarrying to our asphalt and crusher plants, management and control is under Unimac, a quality-assured approach that delivers a premium product and continues to serve the company well," he adds.
Unimac which operates to strict margins, looks to grow its capacity in a measured way. Hatoum himself has previously described the company as "risk averse", selective in its business approach, making sure a job is executed right the first time with an emphasis on quality products and workmanship.
Hatoum, who received his bachelors degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the 1990s and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious Boston University in 2003, reflects on the decision to pursue his career in Riyadh. It proved to be a watershed moment in his life.
"It was the end of the [first] Gulf War and I was living in Manhattan. The question was whether to settle in the US or return to Saudi Arabia. I'm glad I came back, I have a real emotional connection to the city.
"When I joined Unimac full time, I began work in one of the testing laboratories at the company's aggregate production sites in Rumah [a suburb of Riyadh]. I lived at the production site and worked in the quality control laboratory for my first year.
"Looking back at this hands-on experience and working in the lab and production facilities side by side with the employees taught me a great deal, not only in terms of quality assurance but also how to communicate with our staff. "This experience has helped develop the company as we look to expand and build capacity, and it was this investment in and attention to quality, which opened the doors of the ADA to us," he continues.
"From blueprint to handover, we are involved with clients in the design of the roads and highways. We use a value engineering approach to ensure that the client gets the most out of their investment. Other contractors focus on winning a contract and getting the job done with a healthy profit. Unimac takes it one step further. Our job is not done until our client is absolutely satisfied," he explains.
The company will take this philosophy forward on future projects, where it will be working with the likes of the ADA to address pressing challenges in Riyadh such as the city's infamous traffic snarls.
"Riyadh's traffic problems are well documented, but the ADA has been given the green light to develop a modern public transport system, including the metro, which will alleviate the congestion in the long-term. Given its track record, I'm confident the ADA will deliver on its obligations in this regard," Hatoum says. With projects like Wadi Hanifa, the ADA could also be said to be now delivering on its objectives to make Riyadh a nicer place to live, work and play.
If truth be told, it is likely to be some time before such initiatives will be drawing in large numbers of tourists from outside the city, although those visitors that do make it are clearly impressed - one recent reviewer on travel website Tripadvisor described Wadi Hanifa as an "amazing piece of restorative landscaping infrastructure'.
For that, Hatoum and Unimac can take some credit, as they serve the ADA's visions to establish a city with outstanding infrastructure which draws business and leisure visitors in greater numbers.
"It is clearly going to take a lot of work but there will be a turning point at some stage, and we're proud to be part of that journey," Hatoum concludes.
© The Gulf 2014
