The city has spent SR1.4 billion on rain and floodwater drainage network projects over the past 38 years, an official said. Yet the rainwater drainage network protects only 30 percent of the city from rainfall and floods, said Faisal Shawli, director of the Jeddah Road Administration and secretary of the Rain Committee. The city is waiting for approved funds to be paid out to cover the remaining 70 percent of the city with a rain and floodwater drainage network, he said. Following the Jeddah flood disaster which has claimed over 113 lives and counting, the Mayor of Jeddah Adel Faqih said a package of drainage projects worth at least SR3 billion is urgently needed to safeguard the entire city against rains and floods. Yahya Koshik, who was the first director of the Jeddah Water Department 30 years ago, reportedly said that poor planning has led to the disaster. The government has spent generously on the city, but Jeddah Mayoralty “ignored” water drainage projects, and directed the funds to other projects, he said. When the water department started its own water drainage projects by a German company starting with Palestine Street, the then Jeddah Municipality destroyed the pipes as they were constructing the city's roads. The whole responsibility for the city drainage network was then referred to the municipality, which later was renamed the Mayoralty. Koshik said he left the water department some 30 years ago with its annual state budget at more than SR6 billion. The city failed to carry out all the civic plans and projects ordered by then King Faisal, he said, during a recent interview with the Arabic daily Al-Madina. Following public fears of the potential danger of Misk Lake, the lake where the city dumps its sewage overflow, flooding the city, Shawli reassured the public that the situation at the lake is “good,” and that there is nothing to worry about. The 35,000 cubic meters of water drained from the lake area into the sea everyday is not sewage water, but the floodwater gathered behind the main defense barrier of Misk Lake, he said. The floodwater is drained through two 15-km southern and northern flood canals into the sea.
