JEDDAH, 19 June — The practice of recycling is now well established — the idea of conservation and re-use is one accepted by most industrialized nations. Recycled packaging is commonplace and twice-used paper is marketed as “environmentally friendly.” Confined to packaging, the concept and the practice cause no harm and are probably a valuable contribution to both human and environmental welfare. However, is it equally friendly when applied to sewage?
The Mexican government recently launched a campaign to clean up Mexico City’s Central Canal. The waterway is so polluted that if you fall in, you have a greater chance of dying from poisons or disease than you have of drowning. Launched under the refreshingly direct slogan, “From Toilet to Tap,” what the campaign lacks in esthetic appeal it makes up for in commendable directness. It candidly addresses what we would all prefer to forget — what goes around, comes around. Farmers in the region of Mexico City have begun to use water and partly-processed sewage directly from the canal for irrigation. Recycling has thus taken an ominous turn. Why? Waste has entered the food chain.
Imagine this — “Many farmers in the area invite truck drivers to pump sewage water directly onto their farms. Some animals living in the area have died of contamination,” says a researcher who conducted a study on the use of waste. Clearly, this kind of recycling is an invitation to major health problems. The researcher continued by pointing out that water in the area contained 70 times more lead than normal. Lead is well-known for its cumulative and destructive effects on humans and animals. Significantly though, the next country we consider is different and much closer than Mexico. The researcher is Dr. Muhammad Qari from King Abdul Aziz University and the area he refers to is Jeddah. His findings are the most recent though similar conclusions have been drawn in earlier studies. For example, in 1997, Habeeb Saeed writing a report for the US Department of State pointed out that the level of waste management services in the Kingdom was expected to deteriorate.
“Lower budget allocations, high population growth and migration from rural to urban areas have resulted in a higher per capita generation of solid waste. Many landfills are not in proper sites nor have they been built according to modern engineering designs. Consequently there are problems with leaks, odors and unknown contamination of underground aquifers.”
In the Sixth Development Plan, covering the years 1995-2000, about SR1billion was allocated for environmental protection and pollution control.
It was a farsighted and commendable effort, focusing on the effect that rapid industrial development could have on the environment. Dr. Muhammad Al-Harbi, Aramco’s anti-pollution coordinator, reinforced the need most effectively by pointing out that pollution in the Gulf, which is 77 percent, is caused by oil and gas extraction, is 47 times greater than the world average. Investment had to be made in a solution and it was. However, the problem that currently affects the citizens of Jeddah and Riyadh is right under their feet and, indeed, their noses too.
“The infrastructure of the city and the drainage system is a volcano that Jeddah is sleeping on,” said Prince Abdul Majeed, governor of Makkah. To alleviate the problem, he announced that huge drainage tunnels — 80 kilometers of tunnel and 10,700 kilometers of mains and subsidiary lines — will be built to transport sewage and floodwaters away from the city. The question is: where to? Clearly the desert is not the place. What has already been dumped there is now resurfacing in the city. The sewage treatment plants are inadequate — “dangerously poor” as Prince Abdul Majeed put it. Obviously — or otherwise there would have been no problem in the first place. Tunnels and pipes may move waste out of the city just to become a problem somewhere else. So, where can the waste be disposed of? One suggestion is to dump it into the sea.
In November 2000, thousands of dead fish were washed up along Jeddah’s Corniche near the King Fahd Fountain. According to Dr. Adnan Salamah of the King Abdul Aziz University, the cause was illegally pumped sewage water. The sewage water diluted the sea water and more than halved the oxygen levels. In effect, it suffocated the fish. Phosphorous content in the sewage — some 2,000 times higher than normal — encouraged the growth of algae in the water and compounded the problem. And let us note, this was the result of just one relatively small discharge. Imagine 10,000 extra kilometers of mains discharging waste into the sea every day! There lives in all the seas of the world a tiny organism which produces oxygen by photosynthesis. Only 0.16 mm long, the strange and primitive organism exists in unimaginable quantities, billions to the cubic meter. It forms a layer in the seas, rising and falling on the currents. It is also very sensitive to pollution. Invisible to the naked eye, it lives unnoticed by the vast majority of people. We really should get to know them better, for we owe it an enormous debt. It provides and replenishes 70 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere and in the waters of the sea. Destroy it and as the fish discovered, it will cease to provide and replenish anything. With a well-understood and predictable result.
