JEDDAH, 3 December 2007 — Truck drivers who fly tip sewage water and construction waste on remote stretches of desert outside Jeddah could be fined up to SR5,000 and have their vehicles confiscated for two-weeks.
In the last couple of months, Jeddah Municipality has issued fines of SR2,000 to fly tippers. However, an increase in such practices has forced officials to consider increasing fines.
Abdullah Al-Silami, head of the Trucks Monitoring Department at Jeddah Municipality, said that in July and August municipality officials issued over 500 fines to truck drivers illegally dumping their loads.
“Our goal now is to totally eliminate this problem, which stands against the municipality’s goals in keeping the city clean and organized,” he said.
He added that as part of extra efforts, his department has designated 24 municipality vehicles to patrol all northern, central and southern areas of the city around the clock.
“In Jeddah alone there are more than 2,000 lorries that provide services to areas that are not linked to the sewage network. Some lorry drivers dump their loads in empty areas on the eastern side of the city, causing underground water to become polluted,” he said.
“With the new fines and more monitoring units, we’re hoping to stop this type of uncivilized behavior,” he said.
Al-Silami called on residents of the city to report fly tippers to the municipality’s complaints telephone number 940 in order to take appropriate action.
