Prince Faisal signs contract for groundwater level reduction

RIYADH: Riyadh Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar has signed a contract with Azmeel Contracting & Construction Corporation for a groundwater level reduction project in three neighborhoods in the capital city.

The neighborhoods include Al- Aridh, Laban- 2 and Tuwaiq- 9, according to Riyadh Development Authority, High Commission for the Development of Riyadh’s (HCDR) executive branch, which formulates the policies for the city’s development.

The groundwater level reduction in Al- Aridh covers a length of 11.5 km, Laban-2 covers 5 km and Tuwaiq-9 covers 10 km.

Riyadh has over 379 km of groundwater drainage networks handling the rising groundwater level in the capital’s most affected neighborhoods.

An additional 160 km of networks are currently underway in Al- Yasmin, Al- Sahafalah, Al- Aqiq, Al- Rabi, Al- Wadi, Tuwaiq, Zahrat Laban, Al- Aziziah, Al- Faisaliah and Al-Manakh.

Prince Faisal bin Bandar is also the chairman of HCDR, which conducted a series of studies earlier to resolve the groundwater drainage problem.

Consequently, HCDR devised a program to manage the sources that cause the rise of groundwater level, and reduce it to safe limits.

They also took precautionary measures to protect the existing and future installations and public facilities from the impact of high groundwater levels.

They also developed a program for continuous monitoring of the level and nature of both surface water and groundwater.