JEDDAH: In response to reports that a young woman who drowned at sea earlier this month had fallen near a sewage discharge pipe, the Jeddah municipality issued a statement on Friday denying the pipe in question discharges sewage.
“Only groundwater is pumped out at Al-Nawrus beach (where the girl drowned) and not sewage water as appeared in a section of the media. Large quantities of groundwater comes to the surface as a result of the extensive digging works undertaken for laying a comprehensive sewage network in the city. Between 150,000 and 200,000 cubic meters of groundwater is flowed to sea every day,” the statement said.
The municipality says pumping groundwater during its digging operations is necessary to eliminate standing pools of water that are incubators for mosquito larvae that transmit disease, especially dengue fever.
The pipe was mentioned in the local media as likely being responsible for pushing the 18-year-old body of Fatima out to sea. The body was found eleven days later about a kilometer away in 90-meter-deep water.
“As a temporary solution to dispose the excessive water, digging contractors are being permitted to use the existing network to send the groundwater to Al-Nawrus beach. The water is flowing to sea without booster pumps because of the seaward inclination of the pipes,” the statement said.
The municipality specified the water is filtered adhering to the specifications laid down by the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) with regard to seawater pollution, the statement said.
“The municipality will never allow pumping of treated sewage water to the Al-Nawrus beach or any other locations on the Jeddah coastline unless it meets PME specifications,” the statement said.
It further emphasized the municipality’s keenness not to pollute the beach by citing that the samples of the water pumped out by the pipes have been tested in laboratories and have been found meeting the PME specifications including the presence of the required oxygen level.
According to the statement, the municipal inspectors discovered about 600 pipes emptying water to sea at different beach locations.
However, 140 of them were closed as they were found to be violating PME regulations.
The municipality has also posted warnings in collaboration with the Border Guard against fishing and swimming in the Al-Nawrus area because of the dangerous nature of the coastal water.
It is difficult not to notice the smell and algae blooms (which feed on the nitrates found in high concentrations in sewage) that occur at some places along the seaside Corniche, including Al-Nawrus.
According to latest available study by Global Water Intelligence “effluent from the Jeddah treatment plants is discharged into the sea.” Municipal treatment capacity was 200,000 cubic meters per day and 100,000 cubic meters per day went into the Red Sea. Also, the groundwater is being polluted by sewage due to leaks and other faults in the system.
The ground under Jeddah is estimated to receive 150,000 cmd of sewage plus 150,000 cmd of clean water from leakages in the network.
Global Water Intelligence is a UK-based intelligence firm that specializes in the global water and water-treatment industry.
