Residents of Al-Jamia district in South Jeddah have complained about poor services in the neighborhood, particularly unhygienic conditions, bad roads and lack of street lighting.

A number of residents spoke to Arab News about the situation, saying that street cleanliness has been lacking for years despite numerous contracts having been signed between the Jeddah municipality and cleaning companies. They said the proportion of the Saudi population in the district has shrunk to 30 percent due to the decline of basic services, as evidenced by the increasing number of rats, poor planning, narrow streets, and overflowing garbage containers.

Fahd Al-Maliki, Hamdan Al-Marwani and Adeed Alshamrani said that there was an urgent need to revamp the neighborhood and improve services such as asphalting the roads and installing street lamps. They also demanded that the municipality provide additional garbage containers in the area to address the issue of cleanliness.

Salem Al-Bahlul, a resident of the neighborhood, said the municipality has asked citizens to file collective complaints about the poor services, but there was no response yet, despite the proximity of the neighborhood to the main University Road.

According to resident Khaled Khundna, rodents are playing havoc with the foundations of their homes, but the municipality has failed to take notice.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the Al-Jamia district, Hassan Ghoneim, told Arab News that several projects will soon be implemented in the area, including street lighting, asphalting, cleanliness and the development of public parks.