Authorities have cracked down on 989 cases of land encroachment in Jeddah and reclaimed 20 million square meters of land from unscrupulous elements in Makkah. Samir Basabrain, Chairman of the Land Encroachment Monitoring Committee in Jeddah, said: “We've succeeded in reclaiming 989 sites, of which 426 plots of land were allocated for numerous development projects. The encroachers had built ramshackle houses, deserted walled yards and sheds for livestock.” Basabrain said the committee recently demolished construction on land meant for the eastern forest recreation park, colleges of technology for males and females and a complex for male health institutes. He said a database has been set up to record all those people who have previously been convicted of encroaching on public and private property. He said such people can only be described as “land thieves” because they take possession of land without any legal documentation. Dr. Osama Al-Bar, Mayor of Makkah, said that guided by the vision and wisdom of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah region, over the past four months the mayoralty has been able to reclaim 20 million square meters of government land from land sharks in eastern and southern Makkah. “This will prevent the growth of unplanned districts. Were it not for the support of the Emir of Makkah, we would not have been able to control this issue,” Mayor Al-Bar said. There is rampant land encroachment in Jeddah particularly in the eastern and southern areas and extending north toward Thuwal and Al-Leeth governorate in the south. Hamoud Al-Bugumi, a resident of Al-Muntazahat District in eastern Jeddah, said land encroachment takes place on a weekly basis. He said most of these people are experienced real estate operators with enough cash to allow them to move quickly onto a site and construct a building. — With additional reporting by Ali Bin Gharsan from Makkah. __
