Residents of Musaed District in East Jeddah have been complaining about huge swamps in the neighborhood as a result of overflowing of water from residential drinking water tanks and urged authorities to find a lasting solution for the unending problem. This overflowing water covers a distance of 500 meters, causing problems for motorists and threatening public health. Residents said they have been suffering from this problem for the last many years while authorities have failed to find a permanent solution. People blamed the National Water Company's lukewarm response for the problem and said it was focusing on a short-term solution, by pumping out water accumulated in the street, instead of stopping the source of leakage or overflow. NWC has been wasting public money by deploying a large number of tankers to remove water from streets. Al-Madina Arabic daily's reporter visited the district to know the views of the residents. Talq Al-Motairy said accumulation of water in the street was a continuing problem. "The volume of overflowing water is increasing day by day. It's a big waste of natural resources." Ahmed Al-Zahrani said the NWC has so far failed to find a permanent solution for the problem. "NWC officials come to see the problem and leave doing nothing to solve it." Saeed Al-Subhi also put the blame on NWC. "The blessing of water has turned into a disaster," he told the daily. The endless overflow of water has destroyed roads while the formation of huge swamps has become breeding grounds of disease-spreading mosquitoes." Misfer Yahya feared that swamps would spread infectious diseases. The daily's reporter visited the source of swamps and found a large lake of underground water with the volume of water changing from one day to another. Officials in charge of the Haramain Railway project have also found the lake a problem as it obstructed project work. People wonder why NWC sends about 40 tankers to remove water instead to resolving all together. Railway workers have tried to create a new canal to divert the water. Meanwhile, residents of Nakheel District in East Jeddah said they have been suffering from the same problem due to leakage of underground water. "Four days have passed and the authorities have still failed to find a solution," said one resident requesting anonymity. Before publishing the report Al-Madina contacted Fawaz Bahlas, director of NWC's business unit in Jeddah, to find out the reason for the overflow of water in the two districts but he did not respond. The daily wanted to know whether the company has any plan to resolve the issue.
