For 10 days in a row, sewage water has surrounded a girls' high school in Al-Safa District in Jeddah, causing much distress for the staff and students. “The 34th Girls' High School on President's Street was not really presidential today,” one female student said. The residents had earlier complained about frequent leakage of sewage water around the school, but the district municipality had allegedly turned a deaf ear. Girls were seen on Wednesday jumping over the streams of sewage water as they left their school at noon. Umm Husam, a teacher at the school, said the bad smell had turned the school building into a cloud of “toxic fumes”. This was irritating the students and their teachers, and raising their health concerns. “Now we can see rats, cockroaches, and insects in our classroom,” she said, “interrupting our teaching time and distracting our students, who would run away at the sight of a rat or a cockroach. These animals are driven out by the smell, into the school building. This sewage water needs to stop,” she said. Khaled Al-Darbishi, a resident, said that he has filed more than 10 complaints, but had no response from the authorities. The sewage water overflows from nearby apartment buildings almost every day, he said. “The municipality has not questioned the owners about the sewage overflow that is turning this into a nightmare for the whole district,” he said. Municipal investigator Noor Falatah said that the sewage water had been pumped out from the streets around the school. The water supply to the owners responsible for the overflow was cut many times, “but when they pay the fine, the water is turned back on,” he said.
