Several residents of the holy city who recently moved to new locations after their properties were acquired for the expansion of the Grand Mosque are making do with generators to illuminate their homes at night and ward off the oppressive heat in the day. Muhammad Mallawi, one of several people who moved to the Wali Al-Ahad residential district, south of Makkah, said that the electricity supply to the newly-planned area has not yet been approved and that they have been told by electricity officials to “wait until the service is available”. An exasperated Mallawi, like many others in the district, bought a generator to light his house. “The mayoralty distributed the land plots without any planning and left us in the dark,” he said. Mallawi says the generator costs him SR3,000 a month which includes “fuel, oil and maintenance”. Many people in the area jointly bought generators and are sharing the expense of operating them, such as the 70 real estate offices which all rely upon one generator. “It's like we have returned to past ages when electricity only covered the Central Zone around the Grand Mosque,” said Faisal Hawsawi. Other residents said that given the fact that the layout contains 24,000 plots, providing electricity would mitigate the city's housing problem represented in the lack of residential units and the unreasonably high cost of rent. “People come here everyday to ask whether essential services have been provided. Some of them have completed the construction of their houses and are waiting for electricity and some even bought generators and have settled in the new locality,” they said. However, many land owners in the area are optimistic. “Wali Al-Ahad plans have a great future,” said Muhammad Al-Ma'tani. “It's close to Makkah Park which is under construction as well as the Makkah Gate project.” Mayor Dr. Osama Fadl Al-Bar said the electricity company is committed to provide electricity to the residential layout in 2011. The mayor's office has signed an agreement with the company and has identified the location of the generators and submitted a complete dossier to the Minister of Water and Electricity. He called upon the electricity company to make use of the SR15 billion loan it has received from the government to provide electricity to all residential areas.
