Jeddah Mayoralty has penalized 198 citizens for connecting the sanitary drainage of their homes to the underground canals network, blocking it and causing overflows in several districts in Jeddah. Engineer Ibrahim Kutubkhana, Deputy Mayor for Construction Projects, said the fine had reached over SR2.5 million at the rate of SR10,000 for each violation. He said the mayoralty would double the fines effective from next month against the violators who connect their buildings to the drainage network without the consent of the authorities concerned. The fines may be increased to SR100,000 and services will be disconnected from the violators, he warned. Kutubkhana pointed out that the mayoralty's field inspectors had discovered hundreds of the encroached sites in the network noting that the violators will be given a grace period to voluntarily report their encroachment. Those doing so under the grace period will only have to pay fines, he said. Kutubkhana attributed the major reason for the overflow of drainage in Al-Naseem District to such violations besides the growing number of creeping plants inside the canals network. Faisal Shawli, director general of maintenance and operations in the mayoralty, said the follow-up committee had found that a construction company had been carrying out connections for SR5,000. He said the mayoralty has approached the Makkah Emirate to penalize the construction company for the huge financial losses it has caused to the mayoralty. He said the overflow problem is widespread in Al-Naseem, Al-Ajwad and Al-Manar districts stressing that the mayoralty has been working since Ramadan to overcome this problem and has till now terminated 198 connections till now.
