JEDDAH, 3 December 2002 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, has ordered the construction of a reserve dam for Jeddah’s sewage lake located 15 kilometers east of the expressway.

Jeddah Mayor Abdullah Al-Moallami said the municipality has already signed an agreement for the designing and construction of the dam with Bin Laden Group at a cost of SR25 million.

The mayor said the 400-meter new dam, to be constructed six kilometers away from the present one, will hold 40 million cubic meters of sewage.

“The new dam will be designed to make use of rainwater as it will be constructed on the watercourse of the valley,” Moallami told the Saudi Press Agency. The new dam will be constructed in six months.

The move to construct the dam comes after Arab News reported yesterday that the temporary dyke of sand and gravel built on the lake containing toxic sewage was leaking at several points.

The situation was exacerbated by the heavy rains of Saturday. Some of the estimated 15 million cubic meters of waste stored in the lake is pouring through a series of cracks in its west wall. More than 800 tankers a day dump waste into the lake.

Many sewage tanker drivers emptied their loads before reaching the lake at the cost of Jeddah’s residents and the local environment. The wastewater mixed with the floodwater, and together flowed toward the eastern suburbs.

The toxic liquid the Briman Lake 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.

Meanwhile, a municipality official told Al-Madinah newspaper that Moallami also signed an agreement to establish a sewage water purification plant near the Briman Lake.

The plant will have a daily capacity of 30,000 cubic meters. The SR13.1 million contract was won by Dallah Maintenance & Operation, the paper said, adding that the plant will be ready within six months.

The purified sewage water, the source said, could be used for irrigation and industrial purpose.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Moallami said the two projects would help utilize rainwater and solve the problem of accumulation of sewage water in the city.