The Civil Defense on Sunday sounded a warning of a serious situation developing at the sewage lake in east Jeddah. A committee of Civil Defense, Jeddah Mayoralty, police and Saudi Electricity Company officials, which inspected the concrete dam, found dangerous leakage from the sewage level having risen to 6.5 meters The team inspected a distance of four kilometers alongside the dam, crossing walled yards, houses and earth dykes towards the districts of Al-Ajwad and Wadi Al-Dharr. Prince Mish'al Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah had ordered the inspection. The officials climbed atop the dam to determine the water level and concluded that 6.5 meters was dangerously high – three months ago the level was 4 meters. The officials found no cracks or holes in the dam but there was noticeable seepage from the dam because of the pressure flow. The seepage appeared to be from underground. The danger posed by this is that the seepages was taking take the course of the valley towards Al-Ajwad District through the tunneling of the pipes connecting the eastern part of the highway with Al-Safa District. The committee's findings on Sunday were to be sent to Jeddah Governorate. However, their inspections would continue Monday morning. There is a proposal to construct a new dam three kilometers behind the current dam, towards the west at a narrow point in the valley. This is to prevent pressure from building up and causing underground water seepage from the current concrete dam. Sources said that the Civil Defense had warned in previous reports about the fragility of the dam and sought a speedy solution to the problem. There were four guards stationed at the dam site on Sunday; one of them was a Saudi while the others were of other nationalities. The Saudi guard said he and some expatriates were appointed for the job by a private security company two days ago, with a monthly salary of SR1,500 . He said he was surprised to find that his guard house is an old tent that “nobody can live in.” Meanwhile, residents in the east of the highway are in fear over the dam collapsing. One resident, Sultan Al-Otaibi, said they were awaiting word from the mayoralty or the authorities concerned about action to be taken to stop the seepage. Al-Otaibi said the groundwater table has risen to an unprecedented level in the surrounding districts. Besides the pools of water formed were breeding mosquitoes, he said, complaining that the municipality's insecticide spraying operations have stopped, compounding matters. The Municipal Council is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting under the chairmanship of Dr. Tariq Fad'aq to draw up recommendations to the mayoralty about the crisis developing at the septic lake and the precautionary dam. – Okaz __
