The Encroachment Committee at Jeddah's Mayor's Office has said that it will not permit the rebuilding of flood-damaged homes on their valley route sites. Samir Basbarain, head of Committee for Removal of Encroachments at the Mayoralty, said that power had been disconnected from the properties and warned that they faced being demolished. “The committee told the Mayor's Office and the Saudi Electricity Company on Monday not to accept any requests to return power to properties unless landlords produce a certified engineering office report stating that the site is not located on a flash flood route and that flooding will not be a threat to the building in the future,” Basbarain said, adding that building in the Quwz Valley and other natural channels for flash floods will be banned. “The mayoralty is striving to retain the geological characteristics of these courses as flood routes leading to the sea,” Basbarain said. News of the mayoralty's move, however, has seemingly not reached the Credit and Savings Bank, with the bank's Jeddah manager Muhammed Al-Jassas saying Sunday that up to SR40,000-loan for repair and renovation work to flood-damaged homes could be obtained by “merely presenting a (construction) permit from the municipality.” “There is also another loan available of up to SR45,000 for needy families, and all details of the family in question and their property will be looked at as efficiently as possible to verify the sum required,” Al-Jassas said. The Credit and Savings Bank recently began exempting loan applicants affected by the floods from its waiting lists in order to provide them with funds as soon as possible. Mayor refuses to comment Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, meanwhile, chaired on Monday a meeting of the Fact-Finding Committee tasked with investigating through daily meetings reasons for the extensive damage and loss of life caused by the east Jeddah floods last month. The committee has opened a number of case files on the disaster and summoned officials to hear their versions of events. Mayor of Jeddah Adel Faqih declined to respond to questions after taking part in Sunday's meeting.
