A little more than eight months after raging floodwaters ravaged sections of this city causing loss of life and property, the streets and alleyways of Quwaizah District in east Jeddah are still inundated with foul-smelling pools of stagnant water despite the residents having lodged numerous complaints with municipal authorities. Some residents have been forced to leave their homes and move to other districts which provide suitable water and sanitary drainage networks. The unhealthy pools of stagnant water have negatively affected life in Quwaizah with some shopkeepers going out of business and putting their property up for sale and with the area becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects carrying numerous diseases. Ahmad Al-Muttairi, a resident of the district, said he and a number of other residents have filed a number of complaints with the concerned authorities, but to date nothing has been done to remove the stagnant water left after the Jeddah flood disaster last November. “When we demand that the mayoralty's field teams look for the source of the water overflowing or leaking into our streets, the employees adamantly refuse under the pretext that the matter is not part of their job. They blame the National Water Company, which has done nothing to solve the problem till now,” Al-Muttairi said. Ali Al-Amri, another Quwaizah resident, said that because the pools of stagnant water have been there for such a long time, they have caused part of the asphalt of the main roads to collapse and have created enormous potholes everywhere which dramatically slows the flow of traffic in the district, especially during morning and evening rush hours. He said the fact that the stagnant water has remained in the district for so many months, shows that the the concerned authorities are not shouldering their responsibilities, especially considering that mayoralty field teams carry out almost daily tours of numerous sites in the district and are therefore well aware of the problem and of the danger it poses for public health. Faiz Khamees, who lives in the neighborhood, described the situation as very dangerous and accused the mayoralty of turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to the problem. He said this negligence has aggravated the problem and worsened the situation. Khamees said the stagnant water has caused deep ditches to appear on the streets in the district and called for maintenance and repair of these damaged roads. He also drew attention to the infectious diseases which several children in the district have developed because the stagnant water has served as a breeding ground for insects and rodents. He urged the mayoralty to intensify the spraying of insecticides and pesticides in the district and to remove the stagnant pools by filling them with earth. Bassam Bin Jameel Akhdar, a member of the regional council in Jeddah, described the accumulation of the stagnant water in the district as an “environment disaster”. He urged the mayoralty to give due attention to environmental problems in all parts of the governorate and most particularly in the districts in eastern Jeddah located near the Makkah Highway which were devastated by floodwaters.
