JEDDAH: People in Jeddah have been left shocked at the devastation caused by flashfloods that hit the Bride of the Red Sea just over 10 days ago. Such occurrences, however, are not new, something that can be understood from the old Jeddawi saying — “floods know their way.”
In fact, Jeddah is home to five wadis or valleys — the Ghulail, Muraikh, Al-Hashas, Briman and Al-Kuraa — which for centuries have carried rainwaters from the mountains in the east of the city to the Red Sea, said Abdul Samad Muhammad Abdul Samad, the district chief of Al-Balad.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Abdul Samad said the old residents of Jeddah had a love and hate relationship with the rains. “Residents of some districts suffered a lot on account of the rains. These were the residents of Al-Nuzha and the district on which the current Prince Fawaz Housing Project was built,” he said.
He added that a lack of proper basic infrastructure in the new residential plots and the absence of sewage and drainage systems has contributed to the present state of affairs in the city.
To meet the city’s water problems and also decrease the lethality of flashfloods, rulers have historically built tanks — which were little more than open, purpose-built deep pools — in the path of flashfloods.
These included the Abu Zinadah, Al-Mashshat and Al-Naseef tanks, said the mayor who stressed the need to establish drainage and sewage systems, and facilities to process sewage water for irrigation or for industry use. “The solid leftovers could be used to manufacture fertilizers,” he added.
Saudi writer and historian Muhammad Saddiq Dhiyab said Jeddah has historically been known to lack water and that this is something that has been noted by historians and ancient visitors. “The residents of Jeddah used to hunt the floods which are now hunting them by establishing tanks and digging trenches to store rainwater,” he added.
“These tanks were further developed during the Mameluke dynasty from the increasing revenues of Jeddah seaport,” he said.
He added that when the city prospered, the city’s exterior walls were built. “The water tanks still existed until recently in the southern and eastern parts of the city,” he added. Dhiyab said Jeddah owes much to the Kingdom’s founder King Abdul Aziz who built Al-Ain Al-Aziziyah (the Aziziyah Well) in the mid 20th century. He added that as time went by the residents of the old city could not remain isolated within the old city walls and started building their homes outside it.
“Some of these homes were built within these valleys in the path of the flashfloods, but there were no devastating floods until now,” he said, adding that people who lived within these valleys used to sing a famous song which included the words, “How can you sleep well while you are in the path of the valley?”
Dhiyab said the tanks were named after people who owned them or rented them and that one of the most famous was named after Abdullah Al-Hassoun. He added that Jeddah witnessed a similar situation in the 1950s when floods wiped away a number of clay and tin houses in areas such as Hindawiyah, Bukhariyah, Harat Burah, etc. “There were no buildings to block the floods and so the water went straight into the sea,” he added.
He said the new residential areas and underdeveloped areas to the east and south of the city have acted as dams preventing the bulk of water from reaching neighborhoods further west.
“We should not all become engineers and planners. Jeddah needs the help of international consultants to assess the situation and suggest practical solutions,” Abdul Samad said, adding that there is also a need to dismantle the Musk Lake.
