JEDDAH: Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday with the National Water Company (NWC) Executive President Luay Al-Musallam to cooperate and coordinate in facilitating speedy completion of important projects in the city.
“The municipality will build a lake for depositing sewage water and oversee the work of water-supply tankers apart from cooperating with the NWC in solving issues related with water supply and sewage removal,” the mayor said.
“These are issues that have been piling up for the past 30 years and their solution calls for concerted efforts among related departments.”
The signing of the MoU was conducted in a consultative meeting of the members of the Committee for Environment and Health at the Jeddah Municipal Council.
The meeting discussed various solutions to the growing complaints about overflowing sewage water contaminating residential neighborhoods of the city. Much of the city operates on a septic-tank system rather than a sewerage network. Buildings must have sewage periodically pumped out of their individual tanks; if not, the overflow can spill out onto the streets.
The NWC said it took steps to buy 100 pumps so that it could pump out sewage within four hours. The company hoped to take the delivery of the pumps in a few weeks.
In another development, the Friends of Jeddah reviewed the findings of its studies about the cleaning operations in the city in a meeting last week.
The meeting, which was attended by members of the Municipal Council, district heads, members of the local communities and municipal officials, recommended the formation of a team to develop the cleaning services in city districts among several other recommendations.
According to a municipal report, 220,037 tons of waste was deposited at the old municipal dumping ground last month.
The report also said 98,762 tons of commercial and house wastes were thrown at the Asla dumping ground in the same period.
The municipality also issued 2,827 magnetic cards for the disposal building, demolition or repair wastes at municipal dumping centers.
While cleaning companies deposited 60,087 tons of waste, building owners left 90,056 tons and diggers 69,679 tons at the municipal dumping grounds, according to a statement.
