The governor also highlighted the remarkable progress achieved by the city in recent years.
“Four years ago I told you that Jeddah is coming and today I am happy to tell you that it has started arriving,” the governor said while speaking to reporters after launching the SR7 billion initiative during a ceremony at Jeddah Hilton.
The launching ceremony was attended by Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen, Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed and National Water Company’s CEO Luay Al-Musallam.
Prince Khaled congratulated Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and the Saudi people on the advent of the new Hijrah year 1433AH and expressed hope it would bring greater progress and prosperity for Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Islamic world.
“This is one of the important projects for which citizens of this country have been waiting for long,” the governor said. “When I took over as governor of Makkah province, people from Jeddah told me to solve four main problems they were facing,” he said.
The first problem was a lack of adequate drinking water for residential districts in the city. Now people have enough water, he said. The second problem was the sewage lake, which the municipality dried as it had created a major environment problem.
The third problem was the dark smoke and bad smells coming from garbage dumping grounds that have now been solved. “We have now launched a major project to solve the fourth problem related to sewage,” he said.
He thanked the water minister for taking the initiative to solve all these major problems. “We have also implemented other projects not demanded by citizens but ordered by the king,” the governor said.
Prince Khaled asked citizens and residents to be patient with the inconvenience caused by the ongoing road projects. “These projects will change the face of Jeddah. So, be patient until they are completed,” he added. The governor said he would inspect on Wednesday the emergency projects implemented to prevent floods in the city. He said he was following up on projects that could not be completed for various reasons.
The new sewage drainage system launched by Prince Khaled aims to provide sewage connections to 8,000 households from Palestine Street to residential districts north of the city during 2012.
Al-Musallam said the first phase of the sewage project would cover houses in Faisaliya, Rabwa, Salama and Bawadi districts.
The number of sewage connections to be provided in 2013 will reach 52,000. "By the end of 2015, as many as 132,000 connections will be given and they will enter into service gradually," Al-Musallam said.
Al-Hussayen disclosed plans to establish a water storage project in Jeddah with a capacity of 1 million cubic meters to meet the city’s future water requirements. The desalination plant in Jeddah will pump an extra 240,000 cubic meters of water and the Shoaiba plant will supply another 1 million to Jeddah by 2013, he said.
The minister estimated the total value of sewage projects in Jeddah at more than SR7 billion. “The National Water Company will bear the cost of providing sewage connections to households and house owners have to pay back the money through easy installments of SR100 per month over 36 months,” he said.
