MADINAH, 17 November 2004 — Raw sewage running down a main street in Madinah’s Al-Harra Al-Gharbeya neighborhood is creating a public health menace and damaging businesses in the area. Residents of apartment buildings located on a hill in the neighborhood are careless about emptying their underground sewage tanks. Each time the tanks are full, the liquid waste is allowed to flood down to the end of the street for a while, where it forms a cesspool in front of shops and restaurants.
Arab News visited the place where the sewage is flowing in a small stream leading to a fetid pond. The putrid odor rising above the residential area is unbearable. Arriving in the neighborhood at prayer time, we noticed that people wanting to go to the mosque had to jump over the sewage because of the filth that runs south of the mosque.
Abdulwadood Al-Shebani, a Saudi resident of the neighborhood who lives uphill, said, “We have a problem with two buildings in the area. Residents of these two buildings are making our neighborhood look and smell disgusting. As Muslims, we should not harm our neighbors but these people are far away from Islamic teachings. We complained many times to the municipality about the sewage problem but every time we complained we were ignored. Many people stopped walking on this street because they became afraid that a fast car passing by might splash sewage on them.”
At the end of the street, where the cesspool has formed, are two restaurants and some small grocery stores. The shop owners are furious about the sewage problem but helpless to do anything about it.
Abdulhaleem, a restaurant worker, said, “How do you expect me to sell delicious sandwiches and tell my customers that my food is healthy when there is a sewage lake less than 10 meters away from my restaurant? Even inside the restaurant I can smell the cesspool and it is harming my business. I am not Saudi, I do not know how and where to complain. But I know that this is considered harming a brother Muslim. The problem is that there is absolutely no consideration from the building owners. They are not apologizing to anyone and worst of all, they are praying with us in the mosque.”
The sewage issue in the Al-Harra Al-Gharbeya neighborhood is nothing new. Right now though it seems to be worse than usual.
Ali Ahmad, a local resident explained, “I have been living here for 20 years. The sewage situation is normal for this area and we are used to it. Most of the problems are coming from two apartment buildings in the neighborhood. These two buildings are located opposite each other. From time to time, their sewage floods into the street. What is funny, in a sick sort of way, is that when one building starts flooding the street, the owner of the other building shouts and complains that the street is dirty and threatens to call the municipality. Soon after that overflowing sewage tank gets emptied, the underground sewage tank in the other building will start to flood. Then the building owner who was shouted at before will start doing the shouting and threatening. It goes on and on. The only good part is that the sewage tanks never flood at the same time. They do it in turns.”
