JEDDAH, 30 March 2008 — Lousy food, unclean toilets, a lack of security and troublesome baboons are just some of the problems that members of the public face when visiting service stations on the Kingdom’s highways.
“My kids refuse to use toilets at service stations because they’re always dirty and often lack water,” said Fawzia, a Saudi mother of five, who often travels from Jeddah to Qassim to visit relatives.
“These trips are supposed to be enjoyable. Instead they’re torture. I prepare snacks at home and take them with us as I don’t trust the food sold at restaurants and shops at these centers,” Fawzia added.
Abu Ahmed, who works in Yanbu and comes to Jeddah each summer to meet his family, hates it when his children ask for the toilet while on the highway.
“I’m scared they may fall sick if they use the toilet,” he said, adding that he prefers to travel by night when his three sons are asleep and do not ask for food or the washroom.
“They make money from these stations, and so they should at least take good care of mosques and toilets,” said Um Abdullah, a mother of three. She added that mosques are sacred and responsible officials should ensure they have carpets and a proper supply of water.
Sawsan, a Yemeni woman in her 30s, said she and her family were once terrorized by a group of baboons.
“It was a nightmare when four huge baboons approached us after we’d eaten food at a station on the Jeddah-Madinah Highway,” Sawsan said, adding that there were no signs indicating that there may be monkeys in the region.
“The kids were terrified. We had to pretend that nothing had happened until we got into our car to ensure the kids feel safe and not to agitate the baboons,” she said, adding that one of the monkeys climbed on top of their car.
Nisrin, another housewife, said that service stations are unsafe and popular venues for crime during the Haj and Umrah seasons. She added that a lot of muggings and pick pocketing occurs there during those times.
Abdul Rahim, a resident of Madinah, says that he feels embarrassed visiting service stations when accompanied by friends and relatives from abroad who have come for pilgrimage to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.
“It takes ages driving from one station to the next looking for a clean toilet that has running water,” said Abdul Rahim, adding, “My friends and relatives raise their eyebrows in surprise when they see the toilets. They can’t believe they’re traveling in the holy land.”
Speaking about the issue, Mahmoud Al-Kinsara, director general of Permit and Commercial Monitoring at the Jeddah Municipality, told Arab News that they have formed a committee to inspect all stations on the Makkah-Jeddah and Jeddah-Madinah and Makkah-Madinah highways.
Al-Kinsara said his department is “giving top priority to mosques and toilets,” because the service stations “reflect on the image of the Kingdom,” since people come here from around the globe.
The department is working to ensure food sold at restaurants and shops are “safe, clean and fit for consumption,” he said, adding that the result would be seen in a month.
Faisal Al-Mubarak, consultant to the secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, told Al-Riyadh newspaper that service stations are the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and not the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.
He added that the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs insist on fulfilling these duties and seeking budgetary allocations for this. “We’ve called for the need to ensure that these stations are cared for in a way that reflects on the Kingdom’s reputation and provides comfort to travelers and visitors,” he added.
