JEDDAH: City officials yesterday demolished 35 gypsum factories in Rabwah district in north Jeddah for failing to meet the required specifications and for posing health hazards to residents.
Khaled Al-Taifi, an official at the Jeddah municipality, said his office has received many complaints from the residents about these factories, which were demolished in collaboration with the police. “The people are overjoyed by our action,” he said.
Al-Taifi said as soon as the officials and the police leave the location, the workers normally return to run the factories again.
“Regrettably we cannot do anything about this,” he added. “The workers will restore the electricity and start working as usual. These properties have no deeds so we cannot identify the real owners and hold them responsible.”
Al-Taifi said these factories were being demolished together with all utilities. He added that all the equipment is confiscated during the operation.
“This time we also destroyed the groundwater tanks, but we cannot be sure that things will not return to normal after we leave the place,” said the official.
Fahd Al-Diqsi, head of the municipality’s airport branch, said most of the workers in the now destroyed factories were foreigners, a number of them illegal residents. “They did not resist when we pulled the structures down,” he said.
According to Al-Diqsi, all the 50 gypsum factories in Rabwah were irregular and illegally established. He also alleged that they were using waste water in the manufacturing process. Residents of the area had been complaining the factories were polluting the air.
