Aisha Jamal Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – The Administrative Court Saturday absolved Jeddah Mayoralty of culpability in the drowning of a teenage girl three years ago in the sea at Al-Nawras Square at Jeddah Corniche. Rejecting a case filed by the father of the drowned girl, Fatima, who had demanded SR1 million in compensation for mental trauma following the death of his daughter which he claimed was caused due to sewage network pipes, the court said in the verdict (a copy of which Saudi Gazette has obtained) that the authority in charge of sanitary drainage is the Sanitary Drainage Administration in the Ministry of Water and Electricity and not Jeddah Mayoralty. The court also rejected the demand for compensation from the Border Guard, saying that the warning signboards placed by the Border Guard were a sufficient measure. Fatima stepped into the seawater near the shore without knowing that she was close to sanitary drainage pipes. She was swept away by the waste water into the sea and her decomposed body was found 12 days later. Her father blamed Jeddah Mayoralty and the Border Guard for his daughter's drowning. He lodged a case at the Administrative Court against the two authorities demanding a compensation of SR1 million. The Administrative Court said the documents and the defense by the mayoralty showed that it was not responsible for placing the pumps and the pipes. The signboard at the site with the mayoralty's logo was placed to show that it was responsible for roads. The case for compensation against the Border Guard was rejected because no evidence of negligence on the part of the Border was proved. However, the girl's drowning at a famous location in Jeddah Corniche has raised many questions about the opening of sanitary drainage pipes near Jeddah Corniche.
