It has become even harder now to reach districts in the east of Jeddah because of caved-in streets and washed-out roads as well as the endless trips made by water tankers dumping their cargo in a site close to the junkyard along the Brayman bridge, residents have complained. Following last month's floods, authorities stopped sewage tankers from unloading their cargo in Misk Lake fearing that the increased water level of the lake would cause it to overflow into the city. The new dumping site in east Jeddah could create a disaster if it rained, given the fact that piles of derelict vehicles could be swept away into nearby districts, one resident said. The dumping site is on the route of Aba Al-Hateel Wadi (dry riverbed). “The new dumpsite east of the car junkyard has been created for emergency use, but it is not receiving sewage water,” said Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, director of the media center at Jeddah Mayoralty. “What is being dumped is underground water and floodwater pumped out of streets,” he said. Faisal Al-Harthi, a resident of east Jeddah, said that he noticed water tankers driven by expatriates dumping their cargo close to his house late at night, which he reported to the police. When the police investigated, the drivers said they were instructed by their Mayoralty-contracted pumping company to dump the water at that particular site, he said. Brayman Municipality has been instructed to study the new water gathering point and rectify the situation as necessary, Al-Ghamdi said. New pumps will be installed at the site to take the water to the northern flood canal, he added. Al-Ghamdi has urged the public to report any suspected safety-threatening activities by companies contracted by the Mayoralty. The residents have kept quiet about the caved-in streets linking the eastern districts and the new water dumpsite for the past three weeks knowing how busy the government departments were in the aftermath of the flood, said Atiq Al-Sulami, former chief of Brayman District. “But we can't keep quiet any longer. We're still in a situation that we feel is a disaster in the making right under our own noses,” he said. The dumped water at the site has seeped through the soil weakening the already frail construction of the roads, said Muhammad Al-Mahdawi, a member of the family reconciliation committee in Brayman. Al-Mahdawi, who is also a road construction engineer, said the road linking east Jeddah districts with his district across the Haramain Highway was badly executed with only one thin layer of asphalt on a weak layer of sand. “This unprofessional and cheap road construction soon cracked and caved in after the rains,” he said. “It could not handle the pressure from daily traffic, let alone the rain,” he said.
