Sewage from nearby buildings gushes into the sea changing the color of the water at Jeddah corniche.

The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) has warned that Jeddah’s beaches are highly polluted because of untreated sewage being pumped directly into the ocean.

Abdulaziz Al-Jasir, general president of the PME, has urged the Ministry of Water and Electricity and the National Water Company (NWC) to take action to solve the situation. They have not fulfilled their promise made three years ago to put in a proper sewage system, he was quoted as saying by a local publication on Friday.

He said there are many factories that are also running their waste into the sea. The provincial government supports the PME’s stance, which has urged the NWC to resolve the problem, he said.

A study conducted by the PME three years ago found that 80 percent of Jeddah’s coastline was polluted because of government agencies not following environmental regulations. It would take 15 to 20 years to tackle these problems, the study concluded.

Meanwhile, Al-Jasir said the debate taking place around climate change has become politicized and that the environmental effects of fossil fuels are not dangerous to the planet.

However, the government has been trying to introduce technology to reduce the harmful effects of extracting fossil fuels and harmful emissions from factories around the country.

Factories found violating emission regulations would have to be relocated or install filters and safety equipment. He said some operations, such as desalination plants in some areas, are in the public interest and would have to be relocated.

Al-Jasir said the PME has intensified its monitoring of dangerous materials and raised the number of air monitoring plants to 70, of which 60 are fixed and 10 mobile. He said there have also been 1,335 factories rehabilitated with the help of 66 consultant firms.

He revealed that the armed forces stationed on the southern border have been supplied with meteorology information; and that Jeddah’s center has been approved as an international forecaster of weather services for west Asian countries.

The center is one of 15 around the globe, and one of the five best in the Asia region. In addition, the General Authority for Civil Aviation now depends on the Jeddah center for all marine information that was previously sourced from Vienna.

Al-Jasir said the PME has now started to evaluate disasters in the Kingdom in cooperation with the Civil Defense and World Bank. He said it was now becoming increasingly important for an environmental police unit to be set up to provide warnings for the public and enforce laws.

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