The Jeddah Mayoralty has made necessary arrangements to begin three projects aimed at reducing the environmental risks of the ‘Misk Lake,' a sewage dumping area located in northeast Briman. The projects follow a decision by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in July allocating SR95 million to solve the growing problem, Al-Madina reported. Engineer Ibrahim Kutbkhana, Deputy Mayor of Jeddah for Projects and Construction said the authorities concerned have started analyzing the quotations offered by contractors bidding for the project noting that work on the projects will be carried out within six months. He said the first phase of the project, installing pipes to empty out the sewage lake, will take four months. The second stage includes the construction of a sewage drainage station which is set to be completed next April. The pipes will be linked to the station which will pump the sewage into a northern flood canal. He said the second stage is intended mostly to distributing the sewage to treatment facilities. “The treated water will be used for agricultural and industrial purposes,” Kutbkhana said. The third stage involves the planting of specialized plants and trees which absorb waste water at a daily rate of 30,000 cubic meters per day. He said these three projects will completely solve the problem of the sewage dump in Jeddah. Recently sewage trucks were limited to dumping in the Misk Lake in order to slow the increasing water level which put pressure on the concrete dam holding up the sewage lake causing several leaks that became visible. Several areas of Jeddah overflowed with sewage in the streets since truck drivers had to travel longer distances to a sewage treatment facility in Al-Khumrah.Several said they would prefer to stop working rather than travel twice the distance causing double the wear on their trucks.
