The residents of Al-Tawfeeq District in east Jeddah have come up with a solution to the problem of overflowing sewage water in their district after the authorities ignored their problem for well over two years. They hired a construction contractor to build a 1,500-meter-long gutter at the edge of the street to carry off waste water to the flood canal. “When torrential rains lashed Jeddah in 2009, the nearby district was overflowing with rainwater which eventually reached our district and houses,”Ahmad Al-Malki, a resident, said. When this happened, he added, residents immediately reported the incident to Jeddah Mayoralty which referred them to the Water and Sewage Authority. They took the matter up with different government authorities including the National Water Company but they were told to wait and waiting is what they have been doing ever since, Al-Malki complained. Saeed Al-Ghamdi, another resident, said: “Waste water overflowed into my home and I had to drain it out several times in a day.” A senior source in the National Water Company said a project which will reduce the level of the water table in over 18 Jeddah districts will be implemented soon. __
