JEDDAH: The Civil Defense in Makkah is blaming the Makkah Mayoralty for the death of two young students who drowned in a pit in Makkah Wednesday. The hole is in a garden under construction in the Al-Sharae District. The Civil Defense authorities said the mayoralty should have ensured the contractor had warning signs around the area. They said the mayoralty awarded the contract to the construction company and should therefore bear full responsibility. Colonel Ali Al-Shitiri, Head of the Investigation Department and Spokesman of the Civil Defense in Makkah, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that its rescue team had recovered the corpses of the two 14-year-old children from an underground water tank under construction, which belongs to the Projects Department of the Makkah Mayoralty. He said the contractor did not complete the construction work because of the high level of underground water. No warning signs were placed around the site, resulting in the children falling into the hole and drowning. They were returning home from school. Al-Shitiri said the case has been referred to the police. He said the Civil Defense does not monitor work sites because this falls under the jurisdiction of the mayoralty which had appointed the contractor. In such a case the responsibility of the Civil Defense is limited to checking the requested safety measures such as the existence of barriers. Engineer Khaled Sinidi, Head of Al-Sharae Municipality, admitted that the death of the two children resulted from negligence, but said that this was the responsibility of the contractor, not the Civil Defense or the mayoralty. He said the company tasked with the maintenance and construction of the gardens should have ensured the contractor had taken the necessary safety measures for the project. The two families of the dead children have blamed the mayoralty and the Civil Defense. They said the mayoralty was responsible for the project and the Civil Defense should have ensured safety measures were in place or should have stopped construction. Moussem Al-Ghathami, the father of one of the dead students, asked why it was necessary for someone to die before the authorities take action. He said he found it “odd” that the mayoralty and Civil Defense were blaming each other. He said the price of this negligence was the lives of two innocent children.
