In 1945, King Abdulaziz Al-Saud met with US President Roosevelt aboard USS "Quincy" which took him to the Yalta summit, near the end of World War II. At the conclusion of the meeting, the US president asked what could America offer to the emerging state. The King only asked for water drilling and pumping equipment, and explained his plans to settle Bedouins in desert villages and help them work in agriculture and livestock. "Albaidha" is a village in the Makkah region that was, five years ago, a desert area, with no water or grass. It had no public services of any sort — no roads, electricity, water, security, health, education, or communication. A charity chaired by Princess Haifa Al-Faisal was looking for an area to start their first visionary project. Prince Khaled Al Faisal, Governor of Makkah Region, welcomed the idea and suggested five sites around Holy Makkah. Experts from the charity visited the areas and chose Albaidha. It was a difficult beginning, as the locals couldn't understand the new concept. We have got used to the idea of giving people what they want, not what they need. It is much easier to provide a family with meat and eggs, instead of teaching them how to grow their livestock and poultry. The Governorate helped. Workshops were set up to explain the concept of sustainable development and train the population on how to build, grow, maintain and trade. Everyone was engaged, including women, children and seniors. The first of these projects was water supply. With help of from Saudi and international experts, the locals built dams, which in turn filled wells in the areas with fresh water. Drilling and bringing water to homes and newly established farms was next. A purification station was built to use sewage water for the farms, too. Ten thousands trees were planted. The plants were carefully chosen by agriculture scientists to suit the local environment — using less water and meeting particular needs. Among these needs is providing for the thousands of animals and birds that were distributed for locals to breed. Government agencies have contributed to several projects, the most important of which were the establishment of a health clinic, a school, streets and a main road linking the village to the highway. Last Wednesday, the Ministry of Housing, signed an agreement with Makkah Governorate to build, in its first phase, 267 housing units. In the construction, they used local materials such as mud and wood that proved suitable to the desert environment. It conserves energy, and provides warmth in winter and coolness in summer, lessening dependence on air-conditioning. The beauty here is the fact that all these projects are built, run and maintained by the villagers — men and women, old and young. Now they all know the ins and outs of their projects, and can manage and maintain their homes, farms and equipment on their own. In the meantime, their women and daughters would focus on activities that suit them more, such as education, sewing and handicrafts. The executive of a company working on the project testified that he couldn't believe how dedicated, talented and motivated his workers were. Now all the project resident managers are locals, and he offered some of them full time jobs with salaries amounted to SR9,000. The program also encourages and supports individual initiatives and small projects undertaken by productive families groups and individuals. To disseminate benefits, Prince Khaled Al Faisal directed each of the region's 17 provinces to closely study Albaidha project and choose at least one village in each province to start a similar program. He also asked the Um Al-Qura University to research and document the project, so others could learn form it. Interestingly, an American expert on environment and sustainable development has been working in training the villagers and living among them for five years. He gave a speech at the opening ceremony using the local dialect (if broken!), and expressed his admiration and appreciation of the Saudi citizen ability to learn, and their productivity and creativity. This is not the first experiment of its kind, it was preceded by similar projects led by Prince Khaled Al Faisal in the Asir region during his 37 years as Governor. These projects were run in partnership among the state, the private sector and charities. The villages that were built then are now thriving cities. If we could multiply these successful experiments in every region, a more environmentally friendly sustainable development can lead us away from our addiction to government subsidies and over dependency on oil revenues. Human resources are our most important capital and their development should be our highest priority. Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him at Twitter:@kbatarfi
