DAMMAM – Experts have raised alarms at the danger of groundwater being contaminated by sewage, as was discovered in Al-Ghashla neighborhood of Dammam, Al-Yaum newspaper reported Wednesday. Dr. Mohammad Al-Ghamdi, faculty member of Agricultural Science College, said the practice of disposing sewage deep into the ground is an environmental and health disaster that must be stopped immediately. He said that this phenomenon is the result of the lack of proper sewage disposal systems. Many homeowners opt to dig deep into the earth to dispose of sewage instead of the traditional method of constructing septic tanks that can be emptied by tankers. Authorities have been neglectful of taking action against such practices. Recent findings have shown that groundwater as far as 100 km from Jeddah was contaminated with sewage water. Al-Ghamdi believes that this is a widespread practice Kingdomwide and endangers lives and must be criminalized. Dr. Mishari Al-Neaim, professor of Design and Architecture, pointed that this problem arises from unplanned urban expansion, which should be controlled, as monitoring is difficult since most of the activity takes place inside private property. He called for a national strategy for sewage water treatment. Dr. Majdah Abu Raas, board member of the Saudi Environment Society, said that sewage water is heavily contaminated, and contains a lot of microbes and organic material that will seep into the groundwater, affecting the soil infrastructure, and that drainage solutions must be adopted. She added that this is an unhealthy phenomenon that can be resolved by setting up a network of sewage treatment stations. — SG
