JEDDAH: Open electrical boxes throughout the city are alarming residents, especially after recent reports of two children being fatally electrocuted by exposed wires on a lamppost in Taif.
“The cabin has been open and live wires are exposed for more than a year. No one has ever come to maintain it,” said Saleh Ahmad, a resident of Jeddah’s Al-Nuzlah district, as he pointed to an electrical box with a jumble of exposed live wires. “We are always worried about our children getting electrocuted.”
Adding to the concern is the habit of people hooking up to the municipal grid in order to steal power and avoid getting a home electricity bill.
Hamid Al-Silami, a high school student, said he and his friends have been connecting light sources to exposed wires of lampposts in their area for more than two years.
“We pitched in SR50 to pay an electrician to have our light fixed,” he said. Now the kids have free floodlight, courtesy of the municipality and an independent contractor, so they can play at night.
This scene is very common in southern districts of Jeddah. Some youngsters even use municipal electricity to create outdoor lounges, hooking up televisions to watch football or movies or play computer games outdoors.
“I don’t know how they do it, but thank God no one got hurt so far,” said Ahmad.
Anwar Nouri, head of the lighting unit of the Jeddah municipality, said SR90 million has been allocated for lighting maintenance around the city.
The budget, which is set aside for the next three years, includes installing new electricity-saving lighting systems.
The municipality claims it resolved 70 percent of complaints regarding damaged lampposts, exposed cables and other types of maintenance requests last year.
