MADINAH: An ongoing study in Madinah shows that people in the city are not happy with the state of the city’s streets and the old buildings of schools and clinics but they have few complaints regarding public utilities.
“Residents in some poor districts showed me a number of potholes on streets, the depressing school buildings and old clinics close to their houses,” Umm Al-Khayr, a data collector for the Madinah Urban Observatory (MUO), told Arab News.
MOU is currently studying the social and economic condition of people in Madinah. Fifty female workers are collecting data from 6,500 Saudi families in 70 districts representing different social levels in the city.
“The sample families did not have many complaints about utilities such as water and electricity,” Mauda, another data collector said. The study covers a family’s economic details such as income, spending habits, literacy, its rating of the utilities and other services offered by government departments.
The study will also find out the level of poverty, illiteracy or literacy and the number of families supported by women.
It will also give an idea about a family’s means of transportation and average number of cars a family owned.
The study will help decision makers responsible for urban development in setting up policies and making plans for the development of the city.
The women data collectors have undergone a three-day training program on how to elicit correct data from families. The mayor’s office, police and district heads are also helping the data collectors. The municipality has issued introduction letters to the field workers.
Basmah Justiniah, head of the data collectors, stressed the importance of the study as a service to the Madinah society.
The women field workers are assisted by male supervisors. The supervisors also take the photos of the houses where the data are conducted. Mauda observed that mostly people of low-income families, not the high class, who readily supplied the required information.
“People in undeveloped areas are more cooperative than those living in posh areas for reasons unknown to us,” she said.
