Few hours of rain is enough to strip naked the truth, to uncover the core problems disguised under layers of decor and elegance, to cut to the chase and face the ugly reality; our civic infrastructure is fragile.
We have seen this happening the last couple of weeks, in Hail, Riyadh, and Dammam; bridges collapsed, underpasses drowned, and ceilings leaking water in multibillion riyals buildings. It is not a surprise then that Saudis have a special name for rain now; the chief quality inspector.
We have to admit that it is hard to wrap your head around the fact that the newly- constructed projects could be scurrying to chaos in minutes of rainfall. We are talking about projects no older than 30-50 years with billion of riyals price tags. One cannot help wonder as to how old cities like London, Rome, or New York can make it all these years with their infrastructures intact. It is impossible to assume that these countries are using some sort of secret engineering laws. We all share the same set of physical and natural laws. There must be something we are missing.
The easiest answer could be ... corruption. One word, yet so many meanings. I find it difficult to accept that all our infrastructure problems are only caused by the abuse of power. I am afraid that would be a problem, oversimplified.
We need to dig deeper, to find the roots, and try to fix them. Here are some reasons I think leading to our infrastructure catastrophes.
First, poor human resources. We have been, and actually still, suffering from a chaotic work/labor environment. The qualification and skills of those in the field, whether on top or at the bottom, are hardly checked and verified. It is either your connections or cheap prices that will guarantee you a place in the market. That does not mean we do not have qualified locals and expatriates, we do, but the problem is that they are either disengaged, or working in a field other than the one they have been trained to work in. The end result is ... low productivity.
That leads us to the second reason: The market culture itself. We have to admit that we have developed a weird indifference to quality, as aiming to perfection is never a goal in our plans, mediocrity is mostly the answer. Long-term planning is a foreign concept in our business culture, and this alone is responsible for most of our problems.
The third reason is bureaucracy. Blindly following outdated and inflexible rules could lead to nothing but to hinder the success of any project before it even starts. An example would be the way governmental contracts are awarded. A major chunk of those projects are only awarded based on the lowest bids; quality and risk analysis are secondary in most of these contracts, if they do exist.
We could go on and come up with many such reasons, which are all interconnected and dependent on each other. All of these reasons could lead us back to corruption, the huge umbrella shadowing most of our repeated failures. Addressing these problems individually is the only way out of the shadows, to the warmth of sunlight.
@ smaldosari
