At least 60 dilapidated houses on the verge of collapse have been demolished in Shamaliya District in the city of Hufouf, in the Eastern Province. The buildings were demolished after the owners failed to respond to notices to repair them, said Hussein Al-Hirz, municipal supervisor at Ahsa Municipality. Twenty buildings were easy to demolish while the other 40 proved to be somewhat hazardous as they were located in narrow alleys inside old congested neighborhoods, he said. “It was difficult for the large demolition machines to pass through the alleys,” he said. But the municipality managed to destroy the buildings with no harm done to other buildings. The municipality acted on complaints received from the residents of the district who said that the old buildings had turned into garbage dumps, making them a breeding ground for all types of insects and roaches, he added.
