It has become common place that people throw construction debris and leftovers in open areas of the residential districts in Dammam and other parts of the country, causing environmental pollution and creating a bad impression about these cities. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is now in the process of enacting a law to prevent dumping of construction waste in public places inside residential areas. Talal Al-Rasheed, chairman of the environment committee at Asharqia Chamber in the Eastern Province, said the phenomenon was the result of increasing construction works across the country. "Some contractors instruct their workers to dump construction waste inside residential districts exploiting absence of monitoring agencies," he told Al-Yaum Arabic daily. The assigned dumping ground will be a bit far from the construction site and the contractors will allow their workers to unload waste in residential districts in violation of the law. "The throwing of various construction materials near homes of people would have negative health and environmental impacts," Al-Rasheed pointed out. Unauthorized dumping of waste such as cement and plastic would pollute environment and cause spread of mice and diseases-carrying mosquitoes. It will also affect underground water, he explained. Al-Rasheed called for establishing a special zone to dump construction waste and household garbage, adding that it should have a separate management team. "Companies that transport debris and construction waste must be asked to follow the rules and regulations and violators of the law should be punished," he added. "Violating companies should be asked to clean the area and other places as a punishment," Al-Rasheed said. "A system should also be set up so that companies and individuals would not repeat the same offense," he added. Lawyer Bandar Bin Shamal, a member of the Dammam Municipal Council and chairman of the legal and investment committee, said the problem was caused by contractors who do not follow rules and regulations and dump debris in residential areas. He also blamed municipalities for the increasing negative phenomenon as they would not impose penalties on companies that dump construction waste in residential districts and show leniency toward such offenders. This will cause economic and social problems, he added. Shamal also proposed projects to recycle construction waste to prevent environment pollution. "Plastic, wooden, glass, metallic and paper waste could be recycled," he said, adding that it can be used to make various useful materials. Environmental researcher Dr. Saeed Al-Garni highlighted the problem of pollution caused by construction waste. The waste includes metals, copper wires, wood, cement, plastics and blocks, he said, adding that it would harm environment and public health. "Proper management of construction waste is required to make use of its various ingredients, especially wood, copper, aluminum and wood," he explained.
