JEDDAH — When one enters the buildings they live in, he will realize immediately why Jeddah street cleaners cannot be blamed for failing to keep the city's streets spotless. Jeddah residents who have been blaming the street cleaners for garbage accumulation in their neighborhoods will blame them no more when they see the living conditions of these workers inside their accommodation. The workers themselves live in cramped rooms with dirty bed sheets. They suffer from such terrible conditions and cannot do anything about it because the company that hires them has failed to take care of them. How could they be expected to clean the streets when they themselves live in such deplorable conditions? Okaz/Saudi Gazette visited some of the street cleaners living along the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway and witnessed their pitiable living conditions first-hand. Some of the workers were huddled in small groups playing cards to kill time while others were sleeping off their aches away. Other cleaners were trying to fix some junk they picked off the garbage. Clothes were hung on ropes inside corridors and bathrooms were tiny and filthy. These are the conditions they live in, very similar to the conditions of Jeddah streets. So, one should not be surprised when they see a street cleaner crouched on the street or sleeping under a tree. Noorul Haq described the rooms as miserable and dirty. “It's noisy in here but people can sleep as you can see,” he said. Noorul Haq just finished his shift and was going to take a shower to get clean. Sajin Balani said the company they work for does not care about their problems. Workers get tired after their shifts, so exhausted to care about the cleaning conditions of rooms. Balani, who works in south Jeddah, says neighborhoods there have larger quantities of garbage than in the north. Many workers demanded that the company provide them with proper and clean accommodation. They also want the company to pay their salaries on time and provide them with medical insurance so that they do not have to go around begging on the streets. A senior staff member of the company that employed the street cleaners declined to comment when this reporter confronted him about the living conditions of the workers. Dr. Muhammad Al-Hamid, a psychologist, said cleaning workers should be provided with decent accommodations and everything they need to help them do their job better. Zuhair Mufti, lawyer and legal consultant, said the workers have the right to request the company to grant them their rights and provide them with proper accommodation. If the company does not do so, they should file a complaint with the municipality because it is the authority supervising the company's work. Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Nahari, spokesman of the municipality, stressed that the role of his office ends after signing a contract with the cleaning company. If the company breaches one of the contract's conditions, the municipality steps in to impose fines on it, he explained. Abdul Majid Al-Batati, who is the general supervisor of municipal offices in Jeddah, emphasized that all street cleaners should have proper accommodation. He said the municipality signed new contracts with five cleaning companies and it would closely monitor the work of these companies. A spokesman for the National Society for Human Rights said companies that do not give cleaning workers their rights face fines of up to half a million Saudi riyals and imprisonment. Street cleaners should be provided with proper accommodation, medical insurance and the salaries agreed upon in the contract, he stressed.
