The Saudi Civil Defense has come under heavy fire following the accident of Lama Al-Rooqi, the five years old girl from Tabuk who fell inside a man made well. Both the media and people criticized it for its poor response, with the people using the social media outlets to play out their views. People attacked the Civil Defense for its failure to find the body of Lama on time and for taking so long, more than 40 days, to reach the location where her body was trapped underground. Though people presented all sorts of views, the main thrust of their accusation was that the Civil Defense did not know how to deal with such incidents. The Civil Defense was accused of negligence because its men showed up at the location without proper equipment and displayed lack of proper knowledge on how to deal with such situations and, therefore, somewhat responsible for the death of Lama. The social media had its share of strange and absurd posts with some going to lengths of accusing the family for the tragedy. It is ironic that these people did not even bother to consider the police statements on the incident. According to the police, the father checked the place before the family sat down and did not see the well, which was poorly covered. And there is, of course, this fact that no father on earth would mean harm to his children. These claims are truly baseless. I am against those who come flat out and say that the Civil Defense in Tabuk is responsible for this incident, because they are not. They did what they could, based on their capabilities and abilities. Also the incident showed that their training was limited. The responsibility should lie with the Civil Defense officials at the headquarters because they did not provide them with the proper training, even if such incidents are rare. I recall in 2007, two children in Madinah fell inside a manmade well. At that time, the Civil Defense stood helpless because they were not trained on how to deal with the situation. The Civil Defense at that time got help from Afghan workers to dig around the pipe and with the help of a private contracting company cut through the cement concrete. The Civil Defense was not prepared. Another incident in January 2011, that of a Saudi woman falling inside a manmade well in Taif too, was handled in a reactive mode. For 11 days the woman was inside the well and the Civil Defense were helpless until help came from Aramco. Given their experience in digging and underground work, the Aramco men reached the woman's location in a short time, but she was already dead. In all the three cases mentioned above, the Civil Defense found themselves in the dock and facing the attacks from the public because of the mistakes of others. Yet, they should take part of the blame for not being trained to face such situations. I remember reading in local papers that the Civil Defense was to train its officials to rescue people from wells after the Madinah incident. It looks like it was just a press statement because in the two incidents following that, Civil Defense officials did not know what to do. I would like to ask here some pertinent questions that need to be answered. Who was responsible for digging these wells? Why did those responsible for digging wells not cover them? Where is the Municipal And Rural Affairs Ministry in all this? Where are the governorate departments and the local authorities in the region to follow up on open and dangerous wells? It has been reported that there are 130,000 abandoned and unlicensed wells across the Kingdom. If this number is true or half true, then let us get ready to face many more disasters. Where are the officials to monitor such wells to stop a tragedy from occurring? We can accept 100 abandoned wells, but more than 130,000 is just not acceptable! An abandoned well is just as dangerous as a land mine. And we cannot expect families to enjoy their time in a field full of land mines. The government should work with the related authorities to inspect the areas to make sure there are no abandoned wells and it is safe for families to roam or picnic in those areas. The matter is very serious and people should not pay the price for the negligence of the related authorities. One positive outcome from this tragic incident is that authorities have been calling on the general public to report abandoned open wells. The question is why do we only react when a disaster has already happened and lives are lost? Why can't we act before a life is lost? – Mahmoud Ahmad can be contacted at [email protected]
