JEDDAH, 4 January 2007 — The city of Jeddah has seen massive construction in the last five years with an abundance of buildings mushrooming across the city due to an economic boom in the Kingdom. However, many construction companies have a tendency to dump their construction waste on empty pieces of land across the city.

The problem has been exacerbated lately and environment specialists complain of pollution and warn that there is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. “The waste that is left over is harmful to the environment. This is not just a cause for concern in Jeddah but it is a problem across the Kingdom,” said Omar Khatir, an environment specialist, to Al-Madinah newspaper recently.

“If we do not seriously take into consideration the relevant issues here, then we may end up facing a catastrophe that would threaten our health and the well-being of the environment we live in,” he said, adding that a lack of awareness drives construction companies to build and then throw their waste in empty pieces of land or in abandoned wells.

“What is even more harmful is when a responsible person stands back and says that this construction waste is not a real threat to the environment,” he added.

Jedai Al-Busairy, an engineer, believes that construction waste has a negative effect on the environment. “Placing waste in public areas pollutes the land and affects the health of local people. The waste also creates an obstacle in the way land can be used in the future. Construction companies end up clearing and treating the land when they want to use it,” he said.

Local residents also feel negatively about the issue. Talal Al-Zugaibi feels that construction waste has made Jeddah, once known as the Bride of the Red Sea, into an ugly city.

“With the increase in development and the rising interest in the construction sector you hardly find a district that does not have a massive amount of dumped construction waste,” said Al-Zugaibi.

“The municipality needs to clear this waste and punish construction companies that do not stick to the rules,” he added.

Saad Muhammad Al-Juhani, another Jeddah resident, believes that the municipality needs to take proactive steps to remove garbage and punish the owners of development projects.

“With the recent rains and the cold spell that followed, there has been an increase in insects. Foul smells have increased and that is bothering people that live close to such dump areas. Yet the municipality is doing nothing about the problem,” he said.

One resident, Abu Sami, called for joint action by local people and responsible authorities. This, he said, would help solve the problem.

“Citizens must inform the authorities about trucks that throw garbage in public places. The private construction sectors need to also establish contracts with garbage and cleaning companies to ensure a clean and healthy environment,” he said.

A spokesman at Jeddah Municipality said that the authorities are presently discussing the issue with construction companies. “These construction companies are going to draw contracts with the owners of building projects and are going to start work sometime this month,” he said.

The spokesman added that it was a shame that land owners cooperate with truck drivers by allowing them to dump garbage in empty land and not at locations specified by the municipality.

The municipality regularly inspects residential areas to asses how clean they are. “It will take us a year to clean these dumps. We will impose fines that will range from SR500 to SR2,000 on violators of the regulations. We may even shut the building down for a short period if the problem persists,” said the spokesman.