JEDDAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal urged government officials in Jeddah on Saturday to develop a culture of responsibility.
“This country has been successful in confronting challenges. This has helped us in developing a culture of saying ‘I’m responsible,’” he said.
Addressing a workshop on preventing the dangers posed by floods and rain in east Jeddah, Prince Khaled urged officials to move from being pessimistic to being confident and optimistic.
Officials from several government departments — including the governorate, the Jeddah municipality, the Civil Defense, the Transport Department and the Saudi Geological Survey — took part in the workshop which was also attended by experts from King Abdulaziz University.
The workshop was held to pave out a way of converting the flood hit areas of east Jeddah into some of the most beautiful regions of the world by developing wadis into resorts and using sewage water for irrigation purposes.
Participants will present their proposals to Prince Khaled on Sunday. During the 3-day talks, experts discussed ways of developing the city’s underdeveloped residential districts. They have called for the evacuation of all houses that are built in the way of floods and for compensating their owners by providing them with land elsewhere.
“The implementation of these proposals will take time,” they said.
They also referred to the challenges facing the development of east Jeddah, such as difficulty in dealing with real estate owners and a lack of housing units to provide shelter once existing homes are evacuated. There are more than 50 underdeveloped residential districts in Jeddah spread over an area of 220 square km.
The municipality has stopped providing several services, such as issuing construction licenses, licenses for opening shops and land maps in 79 housing areas in the north and east of Jeddah.
The municipality has also handed contracts to international companies to identify flood-prone areas to take precautionary measures and prevent buildings from being constructed there.
Delegates attending the workshops were divided into three teams. Aabid Al-Jadaani, director of constructions at the municipality, said the team for planning studied the implementation of expressways and other roads for the development of the area. It also called for the establishment of new infrastructure for water, sewage, electricity and communications.
Muhammad Ashour, director of Studies and Supervision at the municipality, said the team for floods emphasized the need to remove all obstacles in the path of rain water to prevent a repeat of the Nov. 25 tragedy.
The team for landownership set out a mechanism for the acquisition of land to carry out projects to prevent floods, establish infrastructure facilities and provide replacement lands in other areas.
