JEDDAH: Mazin Balilah, a member of the Shoura Council, has called for a high-level committee to supervise the reconstruction of residential districts destroyed by the Nov. 25 floods.
Speaking to Al-Madinah Arabic daily in a report published on Saturday, Balilah said people who were living in wadis should be provided with new housing units in areas that are safe from torrential floods.
“The Jeddah catastrophe has revealed many shortcomings and set goals for new development plans,” he said.
Jeddah municipality intends to redraw plans for roads and streets in the eastern part of the city with the support of specialized international companies. Hosni Kaltatawi, director of transport and traffic at the municipality, said tenders would be invited from international companies within a few weeks to conduct a study for the plans.
The study is expected to cost SR15 million. He said the road plans for areas located east of the Haramain Road would be revised, taking into consideration the location of the Haramain Railway that will link the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah to Jeddah.
A special panel set up by Education Minister Prince Faisal bin Abdullah to look into the condition of schools affected by Jeddah floods has taken steps to relocate students of affected institutions to other schools.
The panel also urged authorities of damaged schools not to reopen them until they had received safety certificates from authorized engineering consultancy offices after refurbishment.
The SPECIAL panel recorded the flood damage caused to schools in the area and asked an engineering team to make its proposals for the rehabilitation of affected schools.
The expert panel urged officials in charge of academic supervision to make sure all affected students resumed their studies in other schools without any difficulties.
The panel includes Muhammad Al-Ruwaished, undersecretary at the Ministry (for Boys Education), Abdul Rahman Al-Ahmed, undersecretary for school buildings, and Muhammad Al-Omran, undersecretary for girls education.
In a related development, the International Islamic Relief Organization Saudi Arabia (IIROSA) said it would take care of all children orphaned by the Nov. 25 Jeddah floods.
“We’ll support the children who lost either their father or mother or both in the floods. We’ll also provide training through specialized institutes to women who were widowed as a result of the catastrophe,” said Adnan Khalil Basha, secretary-general of the organization.
“We have already allocated SR10 million to support families affected by the floods and this amount can be increased according to the requirements of victims,” he said.
Speaking of other relief activities, Basha said the IIROSA had opened four clinics in the area to provide health services, allocated money to reconstruct 500 houses and distributed clothes and foodstuffs.
