The mayoralty will sign contracts with nine cleaning companies upon the expiry in three months' time of the contracts of the three companies which currently have the responsibility for keeping the city clean, said Dr. Abdul Qader Tankl, Assistant Deputy Mayor of Jeddah for Services. Tankl said the decision taken by the mayor to involve nine companies in the cleaning of the Bride of the Red Sea came after a long and thorough study which attributed the shortcomings and poor standard of cleaning of the city's streets to the fact that the three companies currently under contract lack the necessary resources to keep the city clean, Al-Madina Arabic daily reported, Thursday. The decision to employ the services of nine companies is meant to rectify the situation, he added. He said the mayoralty has launched an intensive campaign to clean urban waste from all districts of the city, especially from Al-Saubail and Ghulail in south Jeddah, adding that the campaign will not stop until the last particle of rubbish is removed. Regarding the low salaries of the cleaning staff and the delay in the payment of their salaries, the deputy mayor said the mayoralty has always urged the cleaning companies to increase the salaries of their workers as this would result in improving their work performance. He said that the new cleaning companies have promised to increase salaries from SR300 to SR500, adding that because of their low income, most cleaners are forced to trade in bottled water and the collection of empty cartons. An increase in salary would allow them to lead honorable lives which is why they left their countries to come to the Kingdom, he said.
