ADA Projects and Planning Center President Abdullatif bin Abdullah Malik Al-Sheikh said “the project will not only attract visitors but is also good for the environment.”

The project aims to construct dams and regulate the flow of water to preserve the wadi’s wetlands.

The measure will also limit commercial activity and land use in one of Riyadh’s few natural green spaces.

Portions of the 120-kilometer wadi have become popular weekend destinations for picnicking families.

Al-Sheikh said the ADA decided to carry out the project due to the “great urbanization process that has taken place in the Kingdom’s capital city during the latter part of the last century when the strategic value of the wadi diminished in the face of new far-reaching economic, industrial, commercial and agricultural advancement.”

Al-Sheikh said the ADA has already initiated measures to clean areas linked to the wadi.

The wadi is named after the ancient Banu Hanifa tribe which inhabited the wadi in pre-Islamic times when the area received more precipitation than it does today.

The rambunctious tribe first opposed the rise of First Caliph Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), but later pledged peace and joined the new Islamic state.