Jeddah which used to bill itself as “The Kingdom?s finest city,” has now turned into one of the driest. So dirty, in fact, that its brown sewage water has mixed with pure water pumped to people?s homes. As the world is celebrating the Earth Day next Tuesday, this city seems to have ditched its aquatic ecosystem. Jeddah Water Department had nothing to hide about it. In fact, sewage mixed with pure water pumped to homes in Rawabi district, north of Jeddah, said Eng. Abdulrahman Al-Muhammadi, director of the department. He shed the blame on a little crack in the underground pure water pipeline that caused the sewage to inject the pure water, affecting the whole district water supply through this pipeline. He assured the residents that his department immediately acted to contain the sewage-contaminated water by fixing the crack, sanitizing the pure water pipeline to decrease the number of microorganisms, and isolating it from the sewage pipeline. But it may not seem as easy as it sounds. Pulling the lever should be the start of a long, intense process to purify the water – after a hard scrubbing with filters, screens, chemicals and ultraviolet light and the passage of time underground. Now one would ask: How efficiently can the water department do that after the whole long struggle story with water supply in Jeddah, and finally the sewage-contaminated water? The same problem of polluted water was experienced, in fact, in many other different districts in Jeddah, especially Naseem, Sulimaniya, and Faiyha in east Jeddah. Abdullah Khairi and Sa?ad Zahrani, residents of Rawabi district, complained about the bad smell emitting from the water in their homes, urging authorities concerned to tackle this environmental hazard, which might eventually cause epidemic diseases. They even feared to take a bath because they felt they would be at increased risk of contracting illness due to bacteria and viruses present in sewage effluent. The water just didn?t look natural, but rather colored with visible floating foreign objects, they said. They added that the water pipes in their district have been neglected for ages, and lately coming under the mercy of ditch-digging machines that have plagued the whole city of Jeddah with hope it will end some day soon with a better water and sewage system. The government has allocated SR7b for a project to set up a sewage and drainage system within five years, but it appears far-fetched as the city started and expanded with an infrastructure that didn?t put an efficient sewage system on its agenda. Now people pay millions of riyals everyday for both water and septic tanks. With no water and sewage system, Jeddah residents should hang on till further notice. - Okaz __
