JEDDAH, 23 October 2005 — Building rubble is being openly dumped over one of the last small sections of undamaged reef that has remained accessible to the public in Jeddah.
A new development just north of Obhur which is a few hundred meters north of two of the most popular public beaches evidently employ contractors who are flagrantly breaching local ordinances that prohibit construction closer than 10 meters to the edge of the reef.
The back-reef is being mined to a depth of six meters or more to allow boat access to a dock; much of the coral and limestone, together with the sand and dust, is being tipped onto living coral. The tail of silt runs south in the prevailing current and is deposited on popular diving and swimming spots, reducing visibility and threatening coral.
Apart from the threat to the local environment, the threat to business is substantial.
Regulations governing building on Jeddah’s seashore exist and they were very wisely introduced for the protection of the environment. Sometimes these are enforced and sometimes they are disregarded.
In a case not a kilometer north of the current building site, 10,000 cubic meters of back-reef (some 33,000 tons) was excavated to make a private marina. The majority — if not all — was taken out to sea by barge and dumped there. The resultant slick from the excavation lasted months and deposited silt on living reefs for several kilometers.
In neither case has the excavated material been deposited safely on land where it would have had minimal environmental impact.
According to one source, the foreman of the project said that the rubble road constructed across the back-reef to the seaward edge would be removed when the project was complete. Maybe — but the many tons that have disappeared down the 50-meter slope, smashing the coral growth to dust, will never be retrieved and has already done the damage. Without doubt, the initiative to tip the rubble into the sea was not that of the dumper driver’s or the foreman. Management is surely responsible.
While it is sure that development will occur along the north coast of Jeddah, very simple rules and their enforcement would reduce the impact on the coastline’s very fragile environment. The 10-meter rule works — but it only works if it is enforced. Excavated material should be dumped inland, not over the reefs where it kills the very things people pay to see.
Surely a journey of a few hundred meters inland would not push the contract price up very much, especially as a percentage of the total expenditure? But no; out of sight, out of mind. Tipped over the edge into the sea it disappears from both view and thought, at once becoming someone else’s problem. And fortunately, that someone else is downstream.
Perhaps rules are not for all — but only for some.
