14 Jeddah flood projects complete

Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal on Friday announced the completion of 14 emergency projects to deal with rainwaters and flashfloods in Jeddah, including the construction of Um Al-Khair and Samir dams. He will inspect the dams on Saturday. “With the completion of the two dams we can say that we have finished all the 14 emergency projects to tackle rainwaters and flashfloods in Jeddah,” said Prince Khaled while chairing a meeting of the executive committee on Jeddah floods. “We have completed all these projects in a record time after we started work on them about three months ago,” the governor said. “All contractors have finished their works on time,” he said. Prince Khaled said Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, have been following these projects with utmost keenness. Meanwhile, Prince Khaled will launch on Saturday the first phase of a sewage network project for the central northern region of the city at Jeddah Hilton. The project aimed at providing sewage connections to households is being implemented by the National Water Company (NWC). It will be completed in 2015. NWC CEO Luay Al-Musallam said the project includes construction of new sewage water purification plants and expansion of existing ones at a cost of SR680 million. “They will have a total capacity of 444,000 cubic meters of water daily,” he explained. Speaking about the emergency projects, Prince Khaled said 12 of the 14 projects were aimed at tackling heavy rains and flashfloods, especially in areas that pose danger to the public. “These are not drastic solutions but will help reduce the impact,” the governor said. He also announced the completion of work on 16 support and emergency centers in various parts of the city. “The temporary headquarters of the crisis center in the Makkah governorate office in Jeddah has been set in full gear to deal with any unforeseen situation.” He thanked all those who worked hard to complete these vital projects on time, before the rains. He also thanked the municipality, the Civil Defense and the Finance Ministry for their efforts. He said work on permanent solutions for Jeddah floods would start in the first quarter of next year. A team of experts working for the project has already completed necessary studies and designs. The permanent solutions include construction of dams, rainwater drainage canals and development of the city’s underdeveloped districts and construction of modern transport systems. Samir Al-Dhamin, director of emergency projects, said the 14 projects were completed as a result of round-the-clock work, covering a total of 2.4 million hours. It also included 755,000 cubic meters of digging work on roads, installation of 18,000 meters of cement pipes, identification of 2,700 areas prone to rainwater flooding, and asphalting of 35,000 sq. meters of streets. “We have also cleaned 78,000 sq. meters of pipes and 2,200 areas inundated by rainwater. We have also replaced 25 pumps to remove water from seven underpasses by stronger ones,” he said. In addition, there will be 16 mobile pumps for emergency. During the function, Jeddah Mayor Hani Abu Ras made a presentation on his department’s plan to clean rainwater drainage systems and carry out maintenance for them. “We have set out a plan to deal with potentially dangerous areas during rains,” he told the governor, adding that a contractor has been assigned to check the drainage system every Thursday of the week. In his presentation, Maj. Gen. Adel Zamzami, director general of Civil Defense in the Makkah province, said the emergency centers have been established to cover all the districts of the city during rains. He said some districts in areas that are prone to dangerous flooding have been provided with nine centers to deal with emergency situations. Saad Al-Ahmary, undersecretary at the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, disclosed the setting up of 14 weather stations in Jeddah and 25 in other parts of the region for monitoring weather conditions including rains and sandstorms.