Tired waiting, residents of Jeddah district repairing roads on their own
In this file picture, municipality workers help residents clean up a neighborhood damaged by the January 26 floods in Jeddah. Residents in some places are not as lucky. A month has passed now but the destruction in their areas remain unrepaired.
Published: Feb 26, 2011 23:11 Updated: Feb 26, 2011 23:55
JEDDAH: Gulail is one of the worst flood-hit districts in southern Jeddah. The Jan. 26 floods caused severe damage on this old district, with many of the roads and streets still in bad shape.
Residents of the area have lost patience with municipal authorities, who are yet to fulfill their promises to repair the roads, even after three weeks. They have decided to act and fix the roads themselves.
They have already asphalted one of the major streets in the district, paying for it out of their own pockets.
The 800-meter Adham Al-Lahmi Street was asphalted after they hired a local contracting establishment to do the work, according to Al-Madinah daily.
Ahmad, a senior citizen from the district, told the newspaper that the last time maintenance work was carried out on the major streets in Gulail was nearly 30 years ago.
“For several years, we have been urging municipal authorities to take steps to asphalt the streets, which are in bad shape and without any lighting. Last month’s flooding has made the situation much worse,” he said.
Ibrahim Al-Ghamdi, another local resident, said: “We do not have any long-term solution to dispose of the sewage that runs through the streets, posing serious environmental and health risks as well as compromising the safety of our houses. The recent heavy rain caused flooding of streets, with a mix of rain water and sewage.”
Two other citizens, Ali Al-Faqeeh and Hassan Aidan, said that local residents approached the municipality several times over the last few years with a demand to repair the roads, but to no avail.
“The only thing the municipality did was send an engineer to take stock of the situation two years ago. He made a technical report with a recommendation to completely re-asphalt the roads. The municipality authorities still have not done anything and that prompted us to find our own solution,” Al-Faqeeh said.
Fellow residents Mufreh Al-Aseeri and Muhammad Ali said a meeting involving residents living along Adham Al-Lahmi Street up to the intersection of Hashim Ali Gas Street was called.
“We decided to award the contract for asphalting the street to a local firm. Most residents contributed to the fund for the asphalting,” Al-Aseeri said.
Abdul Aziz Al-Yami and Mosaied Al-Jahdali criticized the municipality’s negligence.
“We were finally forced to take action to dispose of the huge pits and puddles of sewage along our roads and streets,” said Al-Yami.
Reacting to the complaints, municipal sources said that the municipality was keen to implement asphalting projects in all parts of the city.
“We have no objection in encouraging the participation of local residents in implementing these projects. But this should be in cooperation and coordination with the authorities concerned to ensure the required technical standards and conditions are adhered to while implementing these projects,” one source said.
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