JEDDAH — Mayor of Jeddah Saleh Al-Turki on Sunday announced the start of work for a comprehensive rainwater drainage project in the city. The project is worth SR3 billion.

"The execution of the project has already started in 30 critical and sensitive locations and the municipality has started signing contracts with contractors," Al-Turki was quoted as saying by Al-Madina Arabic newspaper on Monday.

Turki said all main roads remained open during the recent rain in Jeddah but the municipality does not have the resources to dry up rainwater accumulated inside residential areas quickly.

"Contrary to previous years, no tunnel in Jeddah was inundated with rainwater this year. However, we are still in the rainy season but we are quite prepared for it," he said.

The mayor was confident that Jeddah would be in a better position next year with regard to rainwater drainage and said the municipality would be able to deal quickly and efficiently with rainwater in the coming years.

In a report issued in 2015, the municipality said it was able to cover only about 25 percent of the city with the rainwater drainage system. Now the city has a comprehensive plan for the immediate drainage of rainwater from the entire city.

The mayor said enough resources were earmarked to implement the project and said the blueprint and detailed designs for the execution of the first phase of the project have already been prepared.

According to him, the project will consist of a number of phases, of which the first one is already under implementation.

"During the next few years we will focus on the quick drainage of the floodwater. We have a comprehensive plan ready for this," he said.

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