THERE are four or five wadis (valleys) in Jeddah which, in the event of rain, carry water, sometimes in torrents, down to the sea. Some of these valleys were turned into residential areas at different times in the past.
The plots of land were acquired by con men in one way or another; the con men legally owned the land and had the proper documents signed and stamped by the required judges. Then they obtained licenses, which bore the stamps and signatures of the relevant officials in the municipality. The con men then sold the plots to citizens who got construction licenses from the municipality.
The citizens then built houses which were duly connected to all the required services — electricity, water, telephone — and they lived in the houses. Then the disaster happened. The floods came and made it clear through death and destruction that they would not allow houses, cars or human beings to block their passage to the sea.
The floods took no notice of the legal documents and the official signatures on the documents.
Some citizens were lucky enough to escape the floods with their lives as were the con men who had turned the valleys into residential areas and the judges who had given the con men licenses.
The floods took their property back despite the mayor of Jeddah and other municipality officials having given the con men and citizens licenses to sell land and build houses and other buildings.
These three — the judges, the municipality officials and the con men — bear the responsibility for the consequences of the flood. Others may share in it but these three are the principal guilty parties.
The plots of land themselves are known by their own names and those of their owners and many real estate agents can give detailed histories of each plot with the circumstances that led to the issuing of a deed, the licenses from the municipality and the mediators who facilitated the entire process.
The real estate agents may even know who suggested to the con men which plots of land were ripe for acquisition.
I do not know what the investigating committee that began its work last Saturday will do. Frankly I do not care if people are punished or not.
What really concerns me is that every citizen who bought a piece of land and built on those plots should be given another piece of land in another location and financial compensation to enable him to rebuild. The financial compensation should come from the pockets of the con men who stole the property in the first place.
