MAKKAH – Residents of Rayan, which comes under Jamoom governorate, have accused the municipality of wasting electricity as it switched on the street lights in the township day and night for a month. "This has also damaged some street lights," said Raed Al-Munami. Speaking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, the residents expressed their exasperation and asked why the municipality was not taking action against officials in charge of street lights for not turning them off in the daytime while the government was imposing economic austerity measures. "Jamoom municipality launched the street lights in Rayan a month ago and kept them on for a month, thus damaging some lights. We thought it was done on an experimental basis. But later on we realized that it occurred because of sheer negligence," Al-Munami said. He said the residents have confirmed that the municipality had forgotten the street lights after launching the project. "We informed the municipality about the wastage and they sent a team of maintenance workers," he added. The continuous operation of lights damaged some of them and increased the municipality's maintenance cost, thus wasting public money, said Al-Munami while urging the Makkah municipality to take punitive action against negligent staff in Jamoom. Osama Al-Sharief, a resident of Rayan, asked what is the duty of municipal supervisors who roam cities and villages? "Why don't they inform the concerned departments and officials about street lights that operate day and night continuously and about damaged lights?" He said keeping street lights on day and night for a month is against the national strategy to ensure rational use of energy. "Keeping street lights on day and night is a flagrant waste of electricity and employees responsible for it should be punished," Al-Sharief said. He also urged municipalities to appoint employees to make sure that electricity and water are not wastage due to overuse and leakage. Okaz/Saudi Gazette contacted the public relations officer at Makkah municipality to convey Rayan residents' complaints but he did not respond.
