JEDDAH — The Jeddah Municipality and the National Water Company have both attempted to deflect responsibility for uncovered manholes in the city that have claimed four lives in the last six months. According to Makkah daily on Wednesday, they have been blaming each other for the problem. A source at the NWC said the municipality should be held responsible every time someone falls down a manhole while the local authority said it was the company that should be blamed. The NWC source, who did not want to be identified, said water supplies and the sewage system were the responsibility of the company but the manholes were not. He, however, said the company might be questioned if someone fell but was ultimately not responsible for the four deaths. Mohammed Al-Zahrani, a senior NWC official, also said the company is responsible only for the water and sewage networks. “The water company is not at all responsible for manholes inside private properties.” Informed sources at the municipality claimed that the management, organization and supervision of the entire water sector is the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Water and Electricity under a decision issued by the Council of Ministers 13 years ago. They said a year later, about 12 years ago, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs issued a circular referring the responsibility of the entire public sewage sector to the Ministry of Water and Electricity. They said the municipalities are only responsible for manholes in the buildings that are still under construction. When construction is complete, the responsibility for the various services goes to other organizations, it said. Sources have, meanwhile, said new regulations for the disposal and recycling of sewage water do not make any reference to penalties when manholes are left uncovered. The violations specified by the Ministry of Water and Electricity on its website also do not make any mention of punishments.
