JEDDAH, 3 September 2005 — Saudis and expatriates in Jeddah are outraged over the recurrent outages in this sprawling commercial city. They said the electricity company must be held responsible for the losses caused by the power cuts.
Ahmed Nooruddin Turkistani said he wanted to take legal action against the company demanding compensation for the losses he suffered. He said the company did not act quickly to restore supply after the blackout. “But they are very quick in cutting supply to our houses if there is a delay in payment of bills,” he said angrily.
Muhammad Hussein, 40, an investor in stocks, also wanted to sue the company for causing him losses.
“Every person who suffered losses has the right to demand compensation,” Hussein Ghazawi, a legal consultant said. “If the company had made a mistake or showed negligence in its service it would be asked to pay compensation,” Ghazawi said, adding that victims of power outages can approach the Court of Grievances.
But another lawyer said it was not possible for individuals to take legal action against the Saudi Electricity Company as there is no agreement between them. He also said that the number of outages this time was small compared with previous years.
The company had earlier stated that sewage network contractors caused the blackout by cutting electricity lines while digging. The lawyer called for more coordination between the company and contractors to prevent such incidents in the future.
Faisal Hamdan Al-Safari was not satisfied with the company’s defense, saying, “It is an annual event.” He wondered why power outages take place when prices of electricity company shares go up.
Although the company said it had fixed the problem and restored supply within minutes, Atiyyah Al-Harithy said he had to leave Jeddah for three days because of power cuts at his apartment building.
“When I approached the company, they said the outage was the result of an increase in pressure on the supply line and the supply would be resumed within hours. But nothing happened. I took my family then to a furnished apartment, where we stayed for three days,” he pointed out.
For Ahmed Al-Zahrani the loss and inconvenience caused by power outages in the city could not be calculated in terms of money. “Every summer there will be pressure on the supply line and the company should be prepared for dealing with such emergencies,” he pointed out.
The power outage, which hit more than 10 neighborhoods in Jeddah on Wednesday, paralyzed many government departments and affected private citizens. Hundreds of families left their overheating homes and drove to relatives’ houses in areas unaffected by the outage.
Many people across the city found themselves trapped in elevators; the Fire Department responded to frantic calls to release them. Businesses that rely on continuity of electric supply reported considerable damage to their operations.
