The latest news about a fire in Jeddah’s garbage dump is an indication of some of the serious dormant problems that we choose to ignore but which are just waiting to burst onto the scene.
To start with, according to newspaper reports the fire that began in the garbage dump in Jeddah was caused by overstayers who use the dump as a source of income.
They are making a livelihood out of going through the garbage to find objects that can be sold — bottles, wires and anything that can be recycled for use. The trade has become lucrative and as the deputy mayor of Jeddah told Arab News, the number of people who actually reside at the dump is about 1,000.
The people, again according to the deputy mayor, “use the site to burn garbage and retrieve recyclable metals.” The fires in the dump are nothing strange to the residents of nearby areas. And not infrequently, the smell from burning rubbish reaches all the way to Briman.
The fires have not attracted much attention in the past; area residents complained but nothing was done. The smoke pollutes the area and the smell from burning rubbish is offensive to all.
The municipality says that the area is being monitored. But if 1,000 overstayers are living and working in a place that was never meant for human habitation, what kind of “monitoring” is the municipality talking about? What kind of “monitoring” is it doing? Not much, it seems to me.
In another Arab News story, we read that people in the area suffer from breathing problems and are seeking medical help. In other words, innocent residents are paying a price for living where they do.
Now we have been told that the dump is to be moved but does that necessarily mean the end of illegal residents and illegal activities?
What will most likely happen is that some illegal residents will simply shift to the new dump, create a new ghetto, and carry on as they have been. What may happen at the old dump is anybody’s guess. Since the municipality is allegedly “monitoring” what goes on, I suppose we have nothing to worry about.
As far as Jeddah is concerned, this is not the first or only ghetto. The residents of Mahjar in south Jeddah know all about the one right in their neighborhood. It is full of people who are illegally in the country and who are involved in every thing imaginable, legal and illegal. Even the police admit the area is beyond their control.
Sadly it is not the only such area in the city. How do such problems start? What are their origins? We do little but let them fester until they force us to deal with them and then, our dealing is nothing more than putting a small plaster on a large wound.
The problem of overstayers is talked about constantly but never definitively dealt with. All Muslims of course have the right to come to Makkah and Madinah which is why the Saudi government grants visas for Haj and Umrah.
If, however, we grant so many visas, we have to be prepared for the demands of millions who come here. (The granting of so many Haj and Umrah visas is another matter which needs discussion but not here and not now.) What concerns us is the number who come for ostensibly religious reasons and then do not leave.
Some of them find jobs and others do not. Does anyone know where the overstayers are, how they live and what they are doing?
There is law against overstaying but it, like many another laws on our books, is more honored in the breach than in the observance. In short, the law exists but is not enforced or implemented. Is anybody “monitoring” the situation?
In Makkah, there are areas where overstayers congregate and those areas lack public services. I was told by a doctor in Makkah, that when they need to give vaccinations during Haj, there are areas which they do not go to — and those are areas where overstayers live. He said, “We are well aware of the danger of infectious diseases there but it is simply not safe for us to go there.”
The crime rate has gone up in Jeddah; burglaries are on the increase and there are areas of the city where residents know that gangs are on the loose. The only protection most people can provide is putting iron bars on windows.
The problems will of course not be solved by bars and the problem is not limited to a single neighborhood.
The problem is virtually city-wide and what is needed is for the authorities to combine “monitoring” with some well-planned, carefully executed actions.
