JEDDAH, 16 August 2002 — As most parts of the city lack drainage, residents are willing to pay for new sewage network services in the private sector. This was revealed in a recent opinion poll conducted by Al-Eqtistadiah, a sister publication of Arab News.
Sewage overflow submerging roads is a common scene in many parts of Jeddah, posing serious problems of hygiene. The situation aggravates when the rains come. This is because only 20 percent of the residential areas in the city are linked to a sewage network.
Of the 350 people representing both building owners and tenants who participated in the poll, 98 percent said they were willing to pay for some projects to end the pollution of their areas from leaking sewage water.
The sewage problem is very acute in the area running parallel to the Corniche, said Deputy Director of the Water and Sewage Department in Makkah Khaled Al-Badri. The affected areas include the districts of Al-Salama, Bawadi, Suleimaniah and Rabwa and southern parts of the city.
While 66 percent of the participants live in flats, 32 percent live in expensive villas and two percent in low-rent houses. All those polled, irrespective of the type of houses they lived in, complained about the sewage problem. They depended on trucks to remove their sewage. While 38 percent of them are pumping away sewage more than three times a week, 21 percent have to do it three times a week and 27 percent twice and 13 percent once a month. Though the seeping of sewage onto streets is attributed to certain features of the soil in these districts the situation calls for extending the sewage pipes to these areas.
Badri estimated the volume of sewage pumped daily in the city at 250,000 cubic meters. About 58 percent of the people have arrangements with licensed truck owners to pump and carry sewage from their sewage tanks.
Badri also pointed out that his department awarded contracts worth SR650 million for sewage pumping and treatment projects. They will be completed in two years, covering the districts north of Tahlia street to Hira street and south of Makkah road to Al-Khomra, the official said.
