The Jeddah Municipality is facing widespread criticism regarding its execution of tunnels and roads which failed to contain the aftermath of the heavy showers in the city over the weekend.

Several citizens complained about the failure of the civic body to control the floods and once again brought to the fore the poor or lack of drainage system in the city. Social media sites are abuzz with videos of the heavy rains, streets flooded knee-deep in water and cars stranded in various parts of the city with their owners waiting for assistance.

However, the Jeddah Municipality said that they had taken care of the situation and cleared most of the roads within 24 hours.

“We have drained more than five million cubic meters of rain water from 476 different locations in the city in the last two days through drainage networks,” the municipality maintained.

Mohammed Al-Bugmi, spokesperson of municipality, said in a statement released on Sunday: “We also drained 300,000 cubic meters of water using 150 tankers in the city.”

He added that the municipality had cleaned and repaired 17,000 manholes to expedite the flow of rainwater into the drainage system.

“Jeddah Municipality is fully equipped to cope with the rain situation in the city. It has deployed over 1,600 personnel and 512 different kinds of advanced equipment including water pumps and other machines to drain rainwater from the streets,” said Al-Bugmi.

Hani Aburas, Jeddah mayor, personally inspected several flooded areas in the city on Saturday including Samer district in East Jeddah, King Abdullah Street, Andalus street and King Abdulaziz road, according to the municipality.

Commending the municipality’s efforts, he said: “Jeddah Municipality is monitoring the civil works executed by contractors who shall be held accountable for any infrastructural failures.”

The municipality said that it has been receiving thousands of complaints about the city’s infrastructure which should be addressed to the contractors who are failing to complete the projects within deadlines. “They also need to maintain the projects following their completion,” it observed.

Prince Mishal bin Majed, Jeddah governor has also ordered contracting companies to comply with the rules and regulations while executing any infrastructural projects in general and roads in particular.

 
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