ABHA, 10 December 2006 — Akabat Wadi Dela is a crucial 44-km stretch of road in the southern region of Saudi Arabia near Jizan. It’s not simply a main thoroughfare for the area; it’s also the main link between the Kingdom and Yemen.
But under the perennial threat of seasonal flooding, the “Southern Road” as it’s called, is also pockmarked with decades of un-repaired flood damage. Bridges sit for years with large gaps, rendering them useless and forcing traffic to take detours across dry and potentially dangerous floodplains. This road is a key route connecting the Kingdom’s southwest to the rest of the country, but it often looks more like the rural route of some forgotten backwater.
Wadis, as they are called in Arabic, are dry ravines that are common in arid climates. (In the American Southwest they are called arroyos.) They can sit for months, even years, with little or no water. Then, often quite suddenly, a downpour — sometimes miles away, in the mountains, out of sight — sends a powerful torrent of turgid, muddy floodwater down the ravines, sweeping away anything in its path, including livestock, people, vehicles, trees, ill-placed housing constructed since the last flood in an area, and bridges.
This past summer, Muhammad Mahbob Al-Dossary, a 58-year-old Saudi, was traveling on the road with his two sons, 23 and 12, when floodwaters thundered down a wadi, effortlessly sweeping the vehicle they were driving in off the road. After a nine-hour search, the 23-year-old son was found alive. The man and the child were dead.
Saad Al-Juhaimi, a victim of another wadi torrent on this dangerous stretch of road in April 2005, said: “I lost my two sons in a blink of an eye. There was no one around to help me.”
Al-Juhaimi’s loss amounted to his sons, 21 and 16. The father was injured but survived the incident. Later, he prematurely left his hospital room in the southern city of Asir. Hospital staffers called the police, who discovered that the man had limped over to a nearby mosque to mourn and pray for his lost children.
In fact, the flooding of April 2005 still lingers in the memory of many residents in the south. Several villages lost residents, had their approach roads destroyed, making it difficult for rescue workers to reach these places. One bridge that blocked access of rescue workers was destroyed in a flood that occurred in 1981. Since then, no government agency bothered to repair the bridge.
Several people in the area were so frightened by how quickly the flood had struck in April 2005 that they were begging fire department workers not to proceed lest they too should be overtaken by a flash flood.
Rescue workers toiled for the rest of the day, through the night, and into the next morning searching for survivors. In two hours of flooding, 27 people died. Some bodies weren’t found for days.
Local residents say it’s only a matter of time before another flood takes more lives, and they complain that authorities have done next to nothing to avert future tragedies, including adequate repairs and constructing causeways or dams that might mitigate the element of surprise that characterizes wadi floods.
“I pass through five checkpoints in the 200 km between Jizan and Wadi Dela,” said Khalil A., an engineer working with Saudi Telecom Co. and the sole survivor of one of the flood accidents that occurred last year in which he and four others were swept down a ravine by flooding. “The last checkpoint, 15 km from Wadi Dela, was not manned by police officers. There were no warning signs or signboards.” A month after the April 2005 floods, a Bluetooth video was circulating showing the body of a young girl, her body contorted in caked mud and tree branches. Her face, which was the only body part exposed to the air, had been partially eaten off by wild animals.
Families of the victims of last year’s flooding have filed complaints with the help of lawyer Hassan ibn Makafa. They blame contractors and lack of government oversight for negligence that has exacerbated the problem of wadi flooding.
“The contracting company fixed only 11 km of some damaged road, but they neglected the most dangerous part, which has resulted in the death of many people over the years,” said Makafa. “This road should be built like an international highway because it links Saudi Arabia with Yemen.”
Makafa points out that in fact victims of past floods have received compensation from Riyadh that almost resembles blood money. In one instance the people received SR120,000 for each family member killed and SR80,000 for each injured family member. They were also given new cars to replace the ones destroyed in the flooding.
Still, residents say it’s not enough to pay out the families of flood victims. According to Makafa, the residents would like to know, among other things, who is responsible for the upkeep of roads and safety issues, such as signs warning of flood risk, warnings of washed out bridges, and safely demarcated detours.
A source from the civil department said that its job ended when it recovered the last body. “The branch of the Ministry of Transportation in Asir is responsible for this,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The source also blamed people for seeking out routes on floodplains. “Authorities do not have power over people to prevent them from going down to dangerous areas. People go down in search of shortcuts, well aware of the changes of the climate in the region.”
Asir police blame civil defense for the problem, and referred queries about who is responsible for this stretch of road to Riyadh.
While the fingers of responsibility and blame continue to point, the people living around the wadis of the Kingdom’s southwest keep their fingers crossed that they won’t become the next victims of the inevitable.
