How the Jeddah Stormwater Development Program helped preserve a world city and its diverse communities
Jeddah: rich in heritage, international standing, and economic significance, it is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, and the one of the Kingdom’s primary commercial centers. But Jeddah has twice been devastated by floods that took a tragic toll on human life, and wrecked property and infrastructure.
Jeddah Municipality realized it needed to invest in a long-term stormwater protection program to safeguard its 3.5 million residents and support Jeddah’s future as a prosperous world city - and the clock was ticking.
We were engaged to start the program not long before the start of the rainy season, so it had to be conceived and executed rapidly. In short, it was an immoveable deadline with the highest possible stakes - but it was also an opportunity to deliver more sustainable change over time.
Our first priority was fast-tracking the program to ensure emergency dams were in place ahead of the rains. This depended on quickly harnessing global expertise from 20 different technical capabilities across AECOM, including in Jeddah and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, UAE, USA and UK.
Powerful digital collaboration tools proved their worth here. We managed project documentation in the cloud, communicated through daily video calls, and coordinated activity through our Program Management Information System (PMIS). Result: we met the critical deadline and delivered enhanced flood protection before the rains hit.
As our Program Director, Bill Price, puts it, “Our ability to mobilize expertise globally and pull together all those entities across 14 hours’ difference in time zones enabled us to both deploy capable people into Jeddah at very short notice, and work day and night alongside the client to succeed.”
With AECOM’s emphasis on delivering a sustainable legacy through our programs, our partnership with Jeddah Municipality has also focused on respecting and preserving the diversity of the communities who live in the city, and significantly improving their current and future quality of life.
The Stormwater Master Plan, for example, which we continue to design and supervise, is not only helping build a Jeddah that is more resilient to flooding, but one in which informal settlements now benefit from clean water, wastewater, roads, and transport connections. From these flow future community growth, closer connection to the local economy, and, ultimately, increased social and economic mobility – without a single settlement being relocated.
These gains demanded innovative and creative thinking. We combined groundwater lowering and flood protection works into existing city infrastructure projects, for example, to minimize congestion and optimize construction cost. We also avoided disruption to existing communities by incorporating upstream stormwater runoff in undeveloped areas, greatly reducing cost in the process.
For Price, this is one of many ways the program has demonstrated that “it’s the ability to be agile and dynamic enough at the outset to deliver critical portions of work in tight timescales, understanding the client’s own aspirations, that sets you up for success as you go forward.”
In summary, by bringing together the best people, ideas, and technical expertise from across the globe, we have not only responded to the initial tragic emergency – and, indeed, prevented another one happening – but focused our efforts squarely on delivering a better future for a thriving city.
Emphasizing the sustainable legacy of the program, Senior Project Director Wassim Basha comments that it has materially contributed to “improving the livability of Jeddah”, and notes that its success has been built not only on trust, excellence, and partnership, but on “seeing tangible results.”
“To be part of it,” he continues, “and support ongoing quality of life in the city, makes me feel tremendous. We’ve also been able to build positive relationships that have led us to support programs elsewhere in Saudi Arabia - and that is a great feeling too!”