JEDDAH: The Jeddah municipality has begun implementing solutions to deal with present and future rain and flood problems, and has started draining the sewage lake.
Large pipelines are being installed on the ground to empty sewage into the sea. The Jeddah municipality has also begun installing pipes to connect the water in Al-Samr Dam — a third mud dam which is being built as a second line of defense against overflow from the lake — into the north drainage canal. The pipes will pump water at a rate of 2,000 cubic meters an hour.
Ibraheem Kutubkhana, deputy mayor for construction and projects at Jeddah municipality, said that the first stage involved installing pipes on the ground and part of this line will come through Al-Samr neighborhood.
A new station will be constructed to pump water from the dam into the north drainage canal.
Kutubkhana added construction of the dam is nearly complete and thst it is currently being strengthened with rocks and materials to prevent water leakage.
He said that the height of the dam has been increased to seven meters instead of three. When completed it will be 160 meters long and 25 meters wide, and situated 11 km away from the main precautionary dam.
He said this third dam was being built under the order of the Jeddah mayor to reassure people living near the sewage lake. He added, “The tragedy was big and there is nothing in front of us to concentrate on apart from putting in our maximum effort to erase the damage.”
He said that a team of geologists from King Abdul Aziz University and municipal officials chose the location of the dam. He added talk about the main dam at the lake collapsing was nonsense.
According to Kutubkhana, water is being pumped out of the lake to ease the pressure on the dam. Work is also underway to increase the height of the dam from 18 to 20 meters.
He said the water level currently stands at nine meters.
