JEDDAH: Residents of six districts in the east of the Haramain Expressway are demanding the immediate removal of the medical waste-recycling factory from their neighborhood.
“The presence of a privately owned medical waste recycling factory in our neighborhood is totally unacceptable to all people in the districts, east of the expressway. A population of over 350,000 is suffering from air pollution, Bassam Akhdar, chairman of the Al-Samr District Center and an elected member of the Jeddah Municipal Council, told Arab News on Friday.
“The factory should be shut without any delay. It was believed that the operations of the factory would end coinciding with the closure of the waste dumping center in the neighborhood,” Bassam Akhdar said.
“Signing a subcontract with a waste recycling company hired by the municipality is irregular,” he said, adding that the municipal council has also demanded a review of the subcontract’s legitimacy.
He said the presence of the factory is unacceptable because the municipality does not have any effective mechanism to monitor the factory’s operations.
He added that the bad odor from the factory would worsen the existing pollution level caused by the recently closed rubbish dump, which remains as it has been despite assurances that the land would be reclaimed promptly.
Akhdar said the municipality should take steps to enforce hygienic regulations in the factory.
In another development, Minister of Municipal and Rural Development Prince Mansour bin Miteb approved a program for the improvement of municipal services. As part of an evaluation of the performance of municipalities a team of ministry’s officials will be visiting all municipalities. A team will start its evaluation visit to Makkah municipality on Saturday.
