JEDDAH, 26 September 2004 — All organizations involved in the Haj rituals at Jamrat Bridge will be reorganized and restructured for better and safer crowd management, according to Haj Minister Iyad Madani.
Inaugurating a six-day workshop on crowd management here yesterday, Madani explained that the process will comprise scheduling of stone-throwing, and enhancement of operations in order to get better performance and help enhance pilgrims’ safety.
The workshop, conducted by Dr. G. Keith Still of the UK-based Crowd Dynamics, is attended by senior officials from Public Security, Civil Defense, Makkah Municipality, Haj Research Center, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affairs, Red Crescent, and General Secretariat for Development of Makkah and Madinah and Holy Sites.
The minister said the changes planned for the forthcoming Haj were in keeping with the ongoing work on the new bridge where the shape of the basement has been changed from round to oval thereby increasing the capacity by 25 percent.
He said the goal of the workshop was to increase cooperation and contribute to coordination between different authorities, and strengthen their working as a team. He said the government was always ready and keen to use the best expertise in crowd management.
Dr. Sahl Al-Sabban, assistant deputy minister of Haj for projects and holy sites affairs, said different government authorities dealing with Jamrat have their own planning for crowd management. “The workshop is focusing on team, joint approach and effort. It is good to have a common strategy, administration, management and operations,” he added.
Keith told Arab News that with the change in the bridge’s shape there will be a change in capacity necessitating a change in management as well, and “it is important to plan, anticipate and prepare.”
He said there will be three more workshops, which would conclude well before Haj. The present one is focusing on the overall management of change. The other three will be devoted to scheduling, operations and an advanced class termed Master Class.
Keith, who has been conducting workshops, lectures and seminars for the last three years, said his company has been doing consultancy work for the Ministry of Haj. It has prepared several reports for it, and has had some input in the design of the new Jamrat Bridge.
“Crowd dynamics is a new science,” he said. It deals with how and where crowds are formed, how they move, how and where they reach critical mass, what is crush potential, what are the safety limits, design effects and so on.
“Earlier, we just looked at action and reaction. Now we study anatomy of disaster. We can learn a lot from regular studies of crowd disasters worldwide,” he said.
There used to be just crowd control where mainly force was used to make the crowd do what it did not want to do. Crowd management is designed to change their behavior through established and proven management procedures.
He said big, open spaces are easier to manage than confined, underground areas, which are difficult to handle. Pillars also create problems. One method in crowd management is use of what is called “wave breakers.” These are pockets or areas where people can relax.
It is necessary to test different models and carry out simulations. Analyzing the anatomy of disasters, one learns that unfamiliar environment poses higher risks. People tend to return the way they had gone. To change the environment it is necessary to change the perception as well.
“One way of doing that is through signboards. Information changes behavior,” he said, and added, “All of the best ideas and principles have been observed and used in the design of the new bridge. It is designed with equilibrium and balance.”
There should be both good design as well as good management, and the workshops, hopefully will contribute to that, he said.
