The process of transferring responsibility for Jeddah's Misk sewage lake from the Mayor's Office to the Ministry of Water and Electricity will be completed within three weeks, sources at the mayoralty have said. The “urgent move” is in response to the wide-ranging Royal Decree issued by King Abdullah on Monday containing a series of orders related to the Jeddah flood disaster, one of which stipulates that the Ministry of Water and Electricity rid Jeddah of the sewage lake within one year. The sources said that the mayoralty had set about drying up the lake immediately following the floods of Nov. 2009 by preventing further intake and pumping out water to 10 vaporization stations and that there are plans for future use of the site. “The lake will not be filled in after the Ministry of Water takes it over,” the sources said. “Instead it will be turned into the “Aslaa' Dam”, and the water will be used to irrigate agricultural land and neighboring towns,” the sources said. A fortnight back, Jeddah Mayoralty said 25 million cubic meters of sewage was drained out of Misk Lake since floods in November. The water level – which was 8.3 meters before the floods – had gone up to 10.8 meters. A mayoralty report said that the level has been subsiding since drainage into the lake was banned and work to pump out sewage began.
