Abdul Aziz Maafa Okaz/Saudi Gazette DHAMAD – Despite the tremendous efforts exerted by the government and the Emir of Jazan, Prince Muhammad Bin Nasser, flood disasters continue to occur every year. Just recently, Jazan was lashed by heavy floods and many villages were inundated and dwellers displaced. Sheikh Abdullah Mansour, a tribal chief, said the flood caused a lot of damage to many villages in the region and the number of victims is undetermined so far. The government has continued to improve its efforts every year to toward damage control but no concrete solution had been made yet. Abdullah Al-Harbi, director of Dhamad Municipality, said some of the houses in these villages were hit because they were in low elevation areas. “One of the urgent solutions to flood disasters is home elevation and the implementation of flood canal and drainage network project,” he said. Col. Abdul Rahman Al-Bakri, director of protection environment, Jazan Civil Defense, concurred saying a large number of houses were flooded with rainwater. Displaced families are provided with furnished apartments temporarily until water has been removed out from their homes. Some people whose villages were hit hard were angry because they were alone in dealing with the disaster. Ahmad Sarhan, citizen, said the village's houses were severely damaged and needed restoration, which requires a lot of money. Eleven years ago, Jazan had a similar flood disaster that claimed the lives of many residents and destroyed property, he added. Many houses have become structurally unsafe as their walls had developed large cracks following the flood. Some ceilings have collapsed. Basheer Sarawee wonders how he would live in his house now that it had been damaged by the floods. He is poor and cannot afford to have it renovated. Abdo Dhafee escaped death when his house was flooded with water by swimming away. He is worried that his house might collapse any minute due to cracks in the wall. He wondered why the authorities had not quickly responded to this situation.
