Faisal, Emir of Makkah, has said that Saudi Aramco has been brought in to help manage the Jeddah rain and flood water projects which aim to solve once and for all the city's difficulty in coping with heavy rains. Speaking while chairing a meeting of the Executive Committee Saturday and with the Governor of Jeddah, Prince Mish'al Bin Majed, in attendance, Prince Khaled said, “Work is being conducted with the utmost seriousness and speed possible”. “We are now studying with Aramco the formation of a complete administration for the project and we expect it to be set up within the next two weeks,” he said. “Ten international companies have been selected to be invited to draw up complete plans for the problems of rain and floods in Jeddah, and they will be contacted in the next few days to see if they wish to undertake the task.” He said that Jeddah has been divided into 16 square zones for the establishment of support centers for emergency forces, the mayoralty, police and traffic police, in order to tackle emergencies in the immediate future until the flood drainage project is properly completed. “The meeting discussed project works that have been held up in the province of Makkah, and they will not be put up for tender as part of the future flood drainage projects,” he said. “The projects will be divided up to ensure they are carried out appropriately.” Prince Khaled said that “speed was of the essence” in executing the works, beginning with the pre-construction studies. “There will be no dealing with subcontractors,” he warned. The Prince also said that a group of young engineers would be trained and qualified to be involved in the management of the project's execution over the “next few days and years so that they are in the future qualified to manage the projects”. “A number of sites in Jeddah have been identified as in urgent need of attention without waiting for the whole study and the projects to be completed,” he said. “Officials from the Executive Committee will visit those sites to see what work can be done in the next few weeks.” Prince Khaled added that the number of committees conducting the damage assessment survey following the floods of nearly three weeks ago has been raised to 65.
