MINA: Makkah Mayor Osama Al-Barr said the municipality had beefed up its efforts for cleaning, made elaborate arrangements for food security and emergency support services at the holy sites.
“Cleaning the holy sites is the responsibility of the municipality,” he said in an interview with Arab News. “There are thousands of cleaning workers, machines, dumpsters, mechanized garbage boxes and other equipment to undertake the massive task. Besides the tent city, the cleaning operations focus on the Jamrat Bridge and surrounding areas where huge groups gather during the days of Haj.”
Cleaners paid special attention to the barbers’ corner near the Jamrat Bridge where the ritual head shaving began after the slaughter of sacrificial animals on Monday. “The municipality had allocated 1,100 barber chairs for barbers at different places in the holy sites.”
Municipal inspectors made regular tours to guarantee that only new razors were used for shaving pilgrims’ heads. The municipality had also fixed the price for shaving, Al-Barr said.
The mayor also said that hundreds of other chairs were dispersed at various locations.
He said the municipality was involved in various operations to inspect food vendors and to assist the Civil Defense. The inspectors also inspected animals being slaughtered at the abattoirs.
“Only healthy animals, certified by veterinarians, were allowed into the slaughterhouses. The municipality had set up 57 checkpoints to prevent the smuggling of sick animals to the holy sites.”
Disposal of the massive slaughter waste was a major task undertaken by the municipality. Several thousand laborers clean the slaughtering area after the end of the Haj in order to protect the local environment.
