JEDDAH: Trucks loaded with raw sewage pumped out of building septic systems were seen on Thursday dumping their loads with impunity into a concrete drainage ditch near King Abdulaziz University.
The problem has arisen since Musk Lake, Jeddah's sewage dump site located to the east of the city, was closed to any more sewage dumping so that it can be drained and have its water treated for agricultural purposes.
The ditch is located near Jamiah district, one of the areas hardest hit by the Nov. 25 flash flooding. The ditch is designed to channel rainwater from the occasional deluge, but not untreated effluence. The area where the trucks have been dumping their loads reeks of human excrement. Locals are outraged and concerned that the sewage will just settle in the ditch.
"If this water gets blocked by any large object on its way, it might cause a foul odor and it will bring mosquitoes that will breed in these waters and spread all sorts of diseases," a Sudanese resident near the area complained. "Why can't they find a solution to the sewage dumping? It should be dumped far from residential areas. I think we have suffered enough," said another resident.
The municipality is trying to find alternative places to dump raw sewage. A treatment facility in Al-Khomra district is one of the official new dumping locations where the sewage is reportedly being treated. However, drivers have complained that the area isn't ready to receive the loads of the estimated 2,000 sewage trucks that roam the city emptying the tens of thousands of individual building septic systems.
Drivers have also complained that locals in the areas of the new facility were pelting rocks at them, angry that their area has become the city's new toilet.
Arab News tried to contact Faisal Shawli, executive president of the Rain Committee and director general of roads in Jeddah, but he was not accessible.
Meanwhile, truckers say they face a conundrum. While the municipality is dealing with how to treat the sewage and avoid further dumping at Musk Lake, there is still a huge daily demand for sewage truck services.
© Arab News 2009
