JEDDAH: With thousands of dumpsters lost in the Jeddah floods, the eastern and southern parts of the city are plagued with huge amounts of rubbish that is threatening the public’s health.

In the aftermath of the floods, one area facing this problem is the Kilo 14 district where flies hover over garbage on the sides of roads and close to homes. Residents can be seen asking relief workers for medicine to treat flu, fever, diarrhea and skin problems.

The worst affected seem to be the young and the old. Flies not only swarm around rubbish, but also come into homes, resting on the noses, mouths and eyes of young children.

One mother told relief workers how her seven-year-old daughter is suffering from a skin condition that causes itching, leaving marks on her body. She added that the itching is contagious and that other members of her family are also affected.

Another mother complained that her two children and husband are finding it difficult to breath as they are asthmatic and the atmosphere is polluted.

Children can be seen barefooted clambering around garbage, picking up sticks to play with and jumping among clusters of flies.

Obaid Al-Zahrani, an official from the Ministry of Health who was touring the district, said it is not his department’s responsibility to spray insecticide, but to increase awareness about dengue fever, which is carried by mosquitoes that breed rapidly in wet and dirty areas. Also visiting the area was a group of relief workers from the International Islamic Relief Organization who came with cleaning products to help local people clean their homes.

According to Mohammad Al-Ghamdi, manager of the Department of Cleanliness at the Jeddah municipality, 5,500 dumpsters were lost in the floods and that sourcing additional dumpsters would take time.

He said that spraying insecticides was the responsibility of a special municipality department responsible for preventing insects, adding that the spraying of insecticides has to take place before sunrise and after sunset, “otherwise it would not be effective.”

Al-Ghamdi said that all of the areas affected by the floods are being cleaned.

“However, the work is slow in some areas because access is difficult,” he said, adding that progress has been remarkable so far considering the size of the target areas. Four areas that have been cleaned up so far include the Khozam, Um Al-Salam, Balad and Al-Jama’a districts.

Among districts that the Department of Cleanliness finds challenging is the Gulail district. He added that this is because Gulail has been built in a traditional style with narrow alleyways, “but this does not mean that work will stop.”

The job to clean Jeddah has been contracted to three cleaning companies, which cover the northern, southern and central parts of Jeddah respectively.

Al-Ghamdi said post-flood cleaning is not the responsibility of the company responsible for the southern part of Jeddah, but different government bodies, including the Civil Defense and the Jeddah municipality.

The job to clean the flood-hit areas of Jeddah continues, how fast is a question. In the meantime, the ones to suffer are Jeddawis.