JEDDAH: City planners and engineers told Arab News on Saturday that future expansion of the city would be toward the north rather than the east or south.
“The recent flood will undoubtedly prompt the municipal planners to think twice before planning developments in neighborhoods that bore the brunt of the damage,” said Khaled Koshik, a construction engineer.
“The presence of small valleys between hills and other geographical features that invite floodwaters make the eastern part of Jeddah unattractive for real-estate development,” he said.
Echoing concerns expressed by municipal officials, buildings that have been constructed in wadis (desert washes where floodwaters concentrate into raging torrents) should be torn down, the engineer said.
“The current city plan shows that about 150 residential neighborhoods are built on floodwater courses,” he said.
In another development, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs directed all municipalities in the Kingdom to conduct a comprehensive survey of the landscape under their jurisdictions to determine if any of the buildings pose a threat to public safety.
“Jeddah and outlying areas are situated on 16 wadis lying from the north to the south of Jeddah and several wadis cross them from the east to west. There are several neighborhoods lying in the water course of these wadis,” said Muhammad Habib Bukhari, an agricultural and water consultant.
“The most notorious of these wadis is in Quwaizah (district) where the flood hit the hardest,” he said.
Bukhari pointed out that in the past real estate developers have simply filled in these depressions and converted them into residential and commercial areas.
Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh is spearheading the municipal committee in charge of overseeing the surveying ordered by the ministry. A report is expected in two weeks.
