Khair and Al-Nakheel districts are planning to take the mayoralty to court for allegedly allowing building of houses on natural flood courses in the area. They have also demanded that the mayoralty take action against officials responsible for approving these residential developments. They claim that they had raised a number of concerns in the past but were ignored by officials. They are also accusing the mayoralty of distributing land grants in these areas. Residents said that the recent floods took them by surprise. They claimed that the dam, built 40 years ago to protect them from floods, prevented the flood waters from draining away. Instead, when the floods struck the area, the water coming through the Muraikh Valley hit the dam wall and swept back into their areas, flooding their homes. They said they could not escape because the roads had also been flooded. Civil Defense teams were only able to use helicopters to rescue stranded residents. Many could only escape to their roofs. Ahmad Al-Amri, a resident of Umm Al-Khair, said their concerns were never taken seriously by officials. “We had pleaded and complained about the closing of the flood courses by the building of the dam, which held back water six meters deep; and the absence of drainage channels. But we did not receive any response from mayoralty officials.” Al-Amri asked why they had closed the channels in the flood course and covered it up so that houses could be built? He demanded that those responsible should be brought to book. Hamdan Al-Sulami, another resident, said he will now have to build somewhere else and sell his damaged home. “I bought a plot of land in a high area and I'm going to build a home for my family. I've offered my house, in which I'm now living in Al-Nakheel District, for sale at a throw-away price, because I fear a repeat of this disaster.” Al-Sulami claimed that the owner of the Al-Nakheel Planned District had knowingly encroached on the flood course by covering large parts of it 15 years ago. He then divided it into 56 plots, all of which have now become residential buildings. Al-Sulami confirmed that he and several residents of the district have decided to file a lawsuit against the mayoralty over the matter. He said they would support their lawsuit with pictures of the two districts before and after changes were made. The pictures will show where parts of the flood course were turned into residential plots. This broke the law, he said. As an example, Al-Sulami pointed out the construction of an office building on a triangular-shaped plot of land within the flood course. The building has only one entrance – from the southern flood course. He said this was a proof that the Al-Nakheel District was subject to interference by some parties.
