A number of the southern districts in Jeddah still suffer from garbage piled on the roads and streets, while several residents of these neighborhoods have demanded that the Jeddah Municipality take action against contracting firms which are neglecting to clean these districts.

Although the Jeddah Municipality has finalized contracts with waste removal companies and some garbage collection has commenced, the central and southern parts of the city are beset by further accumulation of garbage on the streets as no collections have been made in the past two days.

Hindawiya, Sabeel, Al-Nuzlah, Ghulail and other areas along King Khaled Street are also overflowing with uncollected waste. A lot of residents said that there is no regular or scheduled garbage collection in their area.

A resident of Jeddah’s Al-Nuslah district, Abdul Raheem Aiobbi, a Yemeni expat, said that piles of garbage have become a permanent feature in his neighborhood as cats rummage through garbage bins, spewing rubbish all over the surrounding area. Speaking to Arab News he said, “Accumulated garbage occupies a lot of space on our roads. We hardly find a place to park our cars.”

The size of collection trucks and garbage bins along with the number of trips necessary to remove the garbage from a single neighborhood pose significant logistical difficulties, all of which are beyond the control of the abysmally paid local street crew. The trucks of newly hired companies may be of a different size than street bins or the new companies may not have up-to-date sanitation vehicles.

Last year, the Jeddah Municipality signed a contract valued at SR1.8 billion to remove garbage from several areas. The municipality faced many challenges due to the poor performance of the old company.

Ali Al-Ghamdi, secretary-general for the Jeddah Municipality, said earlier the civic body had also conducted field campaigns in branch directorates and municipalities. The municipality has distributed 240-liter containers to districts which mostly have villas.

“Some citizens throw their waste outside the containers and dispose of large-sized items like furniture and agricultural waste beside the bins. We also have the problem of accumulated rubble and waste from construction, which is thrown away randomly after official working hours. Some people throw waste out of their car windows, putting extra pressure on the municipality. Our endeavor is to maintain a clean and healthy city, which can only be achieved through concerted and joint efforts,” Al-Ghamdi said.

Jeddah and the adjoining urban areas have been divided into 9 zones for which five cleaning companies were recently awarded garbage collection contracts for five years at a cost of SR1.8 billion. Jeddah produces an average of 7,000 tons of garbage a day.