MAKKAH: Residents of the Naseem district of Makkah are planning to sue the Umm Al-Qura University for polluting their neighborhood and endangering health by allowing wastewater from a university hostel to form a small lake in the district.

“More than 5,000 local residents have been exposed to insects that could spread various dreadful diseases since the university rented a four-story building in our area to accommodate women medical students,” said Falaih Al-Sulami, a local resident.

“The continuous flow of wastewater from the building into the neighborhood has created a small lake of stinking water, which has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The lake has formed because the university authorities failed to take steps to remove sewage from the building, as other residents in the area do,” Al-Sulami said.

“We have nothing against the university, we’re only upset at the administration’s lack of concern for local residents,” he added.

Al-Sulami said the university authorities have ignored local residents who have also complained to the local municipality.

Rojyan bin Roji, another resident, said they explained the matter last year to the university’s former president, Adnan Wazzan, when he was in office. “He promised to solve the problem within a week. More than 12 months have passed and the problem remains,” Roji said.

“We complained to the Aziziah branch of the municipality. It forwarded our complaint to the mayor’s office, which demanded the university authorities end the problem but they have not responded,” he added.

Residents then met the university’s new president, Waleed Abul Faraj. “The president asked us to wait for a week just as the old president did. But he has not done anything although months have passed since then,” Roji said.

He added that some people have complained to the National Society for Human Rights and that this has also not helped change the situation for the better.

Salah Al-Sufyani, a local resident, said he is afraid of a dengue fever outbreak in the area.

“I am afraid that this may affect my family, particularly my children, because my house is surrounded by unhygienic water from the building. The odor in the neighborhood is sickening and I don’t know what the health authorities or municipality are doing. We have decided to launch a legal battle against the university,” he added.

Dr. Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, chest diseases consultant at the Saudi Al-Ahli Hospital in Makkah, said the air above the sewage water could cause various lung diseases, including allergies, to those who continuously inhale it.

The location could also be a factor that may cause an outbreak of typhoid, dengue fever and various other mosquito-borne or viral diseases, Abdul Wahhab added. The continued presence of the lake could create serious environmental issues as well, he said.

The director of the Aziziah municipality said he had summoned the owner of the building to his office. But the owner said he was helpless, as the tenant had caused the pollution. He added that the university authorities have ignored a mayoral order to put an end to the problem and that the mayor was planning to ask the governor’s office to interfere.