MADINAH, 20 May 2006 — Two years after a flood wiped out the village of Al-Yatama, 80 kilometers to the south of Madinah, the villagers are slowly but surely reconstructing their lives.
Arab News recently visited this poor farming community to see the progress after one of the worst floods in recent memory. Homes, cars and people were swept away after heavy rains washed through an old wadi (desert flood canyon) that hadn’t seen flooding in years. In one tragic case, 12 members of a family were washed away in a jeep; only the body of one girl was found miles down the canyon. One farmer lost his entire herd of about 700 goats in a matter of minutes.
The village is a farming community that sends most of its produce to Jeddah and Madinah. The people still live in fear that the floods could return. They have requested that authorities construct a dam that would not only act as a levee but also collect water that could be used by the people of the area. So far, they have only managed themselves to build a few meager sand levees that nobody believes would withstand a flood like the one that ravaged the community two years ago.
Naif Al-Suhali, a local farmer, said that despite the huge damage caused by the flood the village is recovering. “Most farm production has been weak over the past two years. Production went down by half because of the flood. If we could build that dam, our productivity would increase,” said Al-Suhali.
The farmer said that despite the disaster, the people of Al-Yatama proved their solidarity, helping each other through the disaster and the lean years that have followed.
