Okaz Once more Jeddah suffered from a poor water drainage system. We pray to Allah that these rains are due to His blessings, and not anger. It is really strange that cases related to Jeddah's flooding disasters are still in courts after more than five years since the last major crisis that occurred in 2011. The cases are still being looked at in courts and no final verdicts have been issued. Today I find that history is repeating itself though the disaster, thank God, is less in gravity than what it was in November 2009 or January 2011. However, the question is: Why do we have a history of recurring incidents because of poor water drainage systems? We are not asking for perfection so that not a single drop of water remains in the streets. This will never happen anyway. But why do we have to get to a point of immobility where schools are closed, streets are flooded, businesses are disrupted, and the water is removed from streets in a very outdated way? Jeddah deserves much more than this because it is a major commercial and tourist hub as well as the gate to the two holy cities. According to what I read, the drainage system is only 40 percent complete and it is so slow in clearing the roads. This situation continues to destroy the city and has its terrible impact on people's lives and property. In an article a few days ago I talked about building neighborhoods with top-notch services including electricity, water, sidewalks, parks, sewage systems, water drainage systems, schools, hospitals, police posts, etc. Only then neighborhoods become self-sufficient and serve the residents without problems. This is basic and important requirement today so that we are not supersized later on that we have to build houses that look like match boxes, which eventually become a heavy and dangerous burden. How could we then effectively drain floodwater and sewage? Or prevent floods for that matter? Or provide public facilities to serve residents of each neighborhood without the need to request additional services, or being flooded at the first sign of rain. We need to work on institutional and comprehensive building methods for neighborhoods. We cannot continue building districts that outgrow services and soon become a problem without solutions. Now we watch Jeddah and before that we watched Hafr Al-Batin reeling but it could happen in any city that gets lots of rain. But are there neighborhoods ready with full services? I repeat we cannot have 100 percent control, but we at least deserve it to be 80 percent. Why not? The government has not been withholding money from spending. I think our problem is in putting long term strategies that are implemented in detail and according to deadlines with high quality so that problems do not recur. Just like the housing crisis, the drainage problem will not be solved in a short period of time. We have to trust that effective solutions are the government's main priority. But we have to also fulfill our obligations and duties and that is what we are supposed to do as citizens.
