Every rainy season in Jeddah raises the same complaints about authorities' failure to promptly address problems caused by storm waters, and now residents in some areas of the city have become so exasperated waiting for promises to be fulfilled that they have begun to take matters into their own hands. Muhammed Ali lives in Al-Safa district and is still waiting for municipality water tankers to pump away the pools of rainwater. “The stagnant water is attracting insects and mosquitoes, all at a time when they are fighting Dengue Fever,” he says. With a week gone since the two recent spells of rain, some streets of Al-Safa remain covered in stagnant. The area has the highest rate of Dengue Fever, an affliction caused by mosquitoes, and Jeddah Health Affairs recently announced the discovery of two new cases. Ali Al-Attar says that once upon a time housewives and their children would bail the water from their houses into streets to then be pumped off by municipality water tankers. “Nowadays, however, with the outbreak of Dengue Fever, we don't wait for the water tankers. Instead locals raise funds off their own backs to pay for a tanker, because by the time the municipality tankers arrive Dengue Fever could have already started to spread,” Al-Attar said. Officials from Jeddah's Mayoralty make the same assurances every rainy season, saying that they have taken all precautionary measures to deal with emergencies, yet locals go through the same difficulties. Amazingly, officials responsible for the city's flood channels only act once disaster has already struck. What, then, is the role of the crisis management committee? What do they do to protect people from the dangers of aging buildings in unplanned districts? Although the rains which recently befell Jeddah were not prolonged, they still managed to cause considerable damage in many districts. This, of course, is apart from the resulting traffic jams. Due to the lack of a competent drainage system and flood channels, some districts in northern Jeddah have turned into breeding grounds for insects and mosquitoes as rainwater stagnates, but the most significant damage is probably to be found in the south of the city where unplanned areas of housing predominate. Saleh Muhammed lives in south Jeddah and says locals live in fear during rainy times. “While north Jeddah prays for rain we don't get a wink's sleep as we are scared that the rains will wash away our old houses. Here, in these unplanned districts, the authorities' promises of precautionary measures disappear with the wind,” he said.
