The Jeddah Municipality has decided to impose a yearly fine of SR1 for each square meter of vacant land without any compound wall around it. The municipality will also slap fines of between SR1,000 and SR 3,000 on those who dump garbage in empty spaces or public places.

The new regulation, to be implemented from April, is aimed at keeping properties free of illegal encroachments and keep them environmentally protected, a local daily reported Thursday.

The municipality has instructed its branches to prepare a list of vacant pieces of land which have no walls around them or where no construction work has been taken up. The move is in keeping with the regulations governing municipal fines and other penal measures approved by the Council of Ministers, spokesman of the Jeddah Municipality Abdul Aziz Al-Ghamdi said.

He said that any citizen who owned land of 1,000 square meters without a compound wall will have to pay a fine of SR1,000 per year. The municipality will also extract fine from those who leave their plots open for unauthorized garbage dumping including depositing building rubble.

Pointing out that there are approved locations for garbage dumping and plenty of garbage boxes at all street corners across the city, he said map approvals for building walls would be issued from branch municipal offices within a week or two weeks.

Government departments that own plots will also be directed to keep their vacant plots walled. There are thousands of square meters of land without compound walls within the municipality’s jurisdiction.