Jeddah residents complain that pollution emanating from the industrial city is leading to environmental problems owing to the waste, harmful gases and bad odor released from its factories.

A study by the industrial committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in 2013 revealed that there were over 480 factories of various sizes in the city.

Hussain Al-Qahtani, spokesman of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), said the PME has issued standards to protect the environment and the government is committed to reducing the industrial pollution in various cities.

The PME works to enforce environmental standards in line with the provisions of the Kingdom’s environmental law by issuing certificates of evaluation and environmental rehabilitation to all factories and institutions, he told Arab News. “This initiative has resulted in bringing about positive results in the last few years.”

He said that there has also been improvement in the programs aimed at realizing sustainable development and boosting protection of the environment. Additionally, inspectors from the presidency conduct raids on factories and plants throughout the Kingdom to verify that they adhere to the required standards and specifications. “There has been direct cooperation and coordination with all the government and private agencies in this respect,” he said.

Ali Al-Ghamdi, undersecretary for services at the mayor’s office in Jeddah, had earlier mentioned the decision of the municipality to start with the relocation of factories operating in Al-Nuzhah area in north Jeddah as a first step to reducing the pollution in the residential parts of the city.

Some factories were releasing pollution above the norms mentioned on their licenses with the municipality insisting that all new industrial projects without exception fulfill the environmental specifications.

Millions of square meters of land have been allocated for the relocation of industries in the south and north of Jeddah, and along Haramain Road. The authorities have also allotted 85 million square meters of land for factories and workshops in Jeddah along the Jeddah-Leith Road and at Usfan.

Jeddah residents, however, say that the process of moving the workshops and factories from residential areas is very slow.

According to a report from Modon, 40 percent of the 3,660 factories in the Kingdom are located in industrial cities.

It also noted that the factories in residential districts were outside the city limits when they were originally established but later, owing to the urban growth, they came to fall within the residential districts. Urban expansion is a phenomenon taking place in most cities.

Major factories that operate inside residential cities in Jeddah include the Pepsi Cola bottling company, the Juffali Truck Factory, Zahid trucks, gold factories, units dealing with construction material and tile factories.

The presence of such factories in the midst of residential areas is bound to affect the health of the people living in proximity to them. The relatively new Bawadi district is full of workshops and factories, which were established well before it became a residential area.