The announcement comes less than a week after a building collapsed in Al-Sahifah district near Bab Makkah killing six children and leaving another six, as well as adults,  injured. Another building partially collapsed in Jeddah's Baghdadiyah district last Friday. Civil Defense had to rescue 12 men from the building.

According to Khaled Zaini, director of the emergency department at the municipality, the Baghdadiyah incident was just the latest in a series of recent building collapses in the city. Currently, there were over 6,000 ramshackle structures in the city, he said. “Next week, we will contact SEC to cut the power to all these uninhabitable buildings,” said Zaini.

Jeddah's Civil Defense Director, Brig. Abdullah Al-Jeddawi, said that it was the municipality’s responsibility to review the state of buildings and decide whether they were safe. Any decision to evacuate a dangerous structure or buildings adjacent was made purely in the interests of people's safety. The residents still living in buildings that might be classed as dangerous are opposed to  attempts to force them out or to the power being cut. They are worried about burglaries if there is no lighting and have demanded a greater police presence if that happens. They say they are poor and do not have the money to move elsewhere.

“Where will I go? I have been living in this building for more than 40 years. I can't afford moving anywhere else. I don’t know any other place outside this district,” Abu Abdullah, a 70-year-old Yemeni resident told Arab News.

Jeddah municipality is still reviewing the safety of buildings in Al-Sahifah district according to Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, its official spokesman. He said that the municipality is still putting notices on dangerous buildings telling residents they have to leave.

However, the local mayor of Al-Sahifah, Mansour Akeel, said that there are only 15 homes in the neighborhood classed as uninhabitable. He urged the police to increase their presence before the power was cut so as to prevent any thefts. He pointed out that there were also many overstayers in the neighborhood who might exploit the situation.