Expatriate workers, mostly Sudanese and Yemenis, live the southern districts of Gulail, Al-Nuzlah and Mahjar. They prefer to live here because of its proximity to the industrial city where they find employment.

Municipal officials are, according to the residents of these districts, lukewarm in sending trucks to pump out the stagnant water in the inner district roads even after heavy rains flood them.

In the absence of any serious effort to drain the roads, water remains in the streets at least over the next three months left to evaporate on their own as happened in the aftermath of the Nov. 25, 2009 flood.

“Rains flood the narrow roads in the neighborhood and water enters our cars and causes breakdowns," said Yemeni resident Saeed Abdul Rahman.

He added that mostly houses in the area were very old and so could not withstand heavy rains.

“The infrastructure in our area is broken down and in the absence of a sewage or drainage network the old buildings pose the threat of collapse,” he said.

He continued with words that did not carry any hint of optimism.

“No developments come here and the streets have been the same in the past many years. Now we fear that calamities such as happened on 2009 will visit us again,” he said. 

Saleh Awad, a Sudanese resident in Al-Nuzla district, said he was living in the district over the past 20 years because he was working in a workshop in the nearby industrial district.

“Water seeps into my house even if the rain is of moderate intensity. I cannot go out leaving my family alone in an unsafe surrounding,” he said.