JEDDAH, 2 December 2002 — A temporary dyke of sand and gravel built to contain a lake of toxic sewage here is leaking at more than one point, a situation exacerbated by the heavy rains of Saturday.

Some of the estimated 15 million cubic meters of waste stored in the lake, located to the east of Jeddah, is pouring through a series of cracks in its west wall.

Even when there is no rainfall, more than 800 tankers a day dump waste into the lake. On Saturday, however, when the road to the dumping point was itself partially flooded the tanker drivers chose not to try to reach the lake. In just 20 minutes, 30 tankers dumped their load of raw sewage onto the road and into overflowing culverts alongside it.

This took place less than three kilometers from where the eastern suburbs of Jeddah begin.

The wastewater mingled with the floodwater, and together it all flowed toward the eastern suburbs.

A kilometer downstream, truck drivers from a local waste disposal company who were apparently unaware of what was happening upstream stood in the foul water and used their hands to splash it over their trucks in attempt to clean them.

Emptying their tankers onto the road or in the culverts saved the drivers 30 minutes journey time through shallow floodwater. But at what cost to the health of Jeddah’s residents and the local environment?

Engineer Faisal Ashouli, director of roads and maintenance, has stated this week that he believes creating two sewage canals would help solve Jeddah’s waste disposal problem. He also justifies the resulting dumping of the untreated sewage directly into the sea by saying that “to save people and property it is the only option.”

By shifting the problem from the polluted lakes west of Briman to the sea south of Jeddah, the health and environmental damage is in fact not being addressed at all. Furthermore, his whole argument is predicated on the idea that the waste will in fact reach the lakes.

Moreover, pouring it into the sea will pollute the coast for scores of kilometers. It is not a viable alternative. What would be is the building of modern and relatively cheap sewage plants that utilize organic decomposition technology.

Keeping Briman’s man-made lake where it is poses many dangers. The toxic liquid it stores is not only leaking on the surface. It is seeping into the groundwater into the aquifer that runs beneath it. Wells are dug into this aquifer and people use the water polluted by the sewage unaware of the obvious health risks

The wastewater also appears as stinking surface water, as was recently noticed at vegetable markets near the Makkah Expressway.

What doesn’t surface or get used eventually appears in Arba’een lagoon near the port, and its infamous putrid stench long ago passed into local legend. Yet more wastewater finds its way straight onto the parks and lawns that are one of Jeddah’s attractive features. The spraying of wastewater in this way aerosolizes the water, meaning it carries on the breeze for great distances — taking with it bacteria that causes disease.

Aerosolizing is the same technique used to spread bacteria in biological warfare weapons.

Jeddah’s mayor may choose to downplay the leak in the dam by announcing the construction of a concrete dam. However, it is leaking — and it is leaking now. Aside from the short-term risk of flash flooding, there is the question of the long-term health effects of Jeddah’s residents.

Jeddah is basically sitting on a sea of its own waste. According to a speaker at a recent conference on water-related issues held in Jeddah, a large percentage of urban Jeddah was constructed on land that today would be considered unfit for building on.

A fleet of tankers is presently being used to pump out groundwater from a trench built to contain a new pipeline in Jeddah. Water exists only a meter below ground level and is consequently flooding the trench. This is a clear indication of just how the water pumped into the lakes in east Jeddah is beginning to surface and cause problems in west Jeddah.