Jeddah, December 09: The Jeddah Mayoralty has offered impoverished Ghulail District nothing but broken promises since disastrous floodwaters hit the city two weeks ago. Bewildered by the long wait for the city to clean up the flood-hit district, south of Jeddah, volunteers have taken it upon themselves to clean up the neighborhood.
Over 200 young residents of Ghulail and other parts of Jeddah have started cleaning up the area and working to safeguard Ghulail against the potential dangers of dengue fever as mosquitoes are breeding rapidly in the flood-ravaged district.
Ghulail residents said they have called the Jeddah Mayoralty at 940 on numerous occasions since the flood struck the city to ask for help, but their calls were answered with clean up promises that never materialized.
Ironically, it is called the “My Health, My Responsibility. Call Now” number.
The Jeddah Mayoralty has fallen short on its duty to this poor district of the city, not only now, but for a long time, one resident complained. “We have been just a write-off as far as the mayoralty is concerned,” he said.
“We have been living in a muddy neighborhood amid streams of sewage,” said one resident. “Those of us who survived the flood may not survive the disease,” said Muhammad Saeed, who is leading a team of 200 clean-up volunteers. “After the Mayoralty turned a deaf ear to our pleas, we’ve decided to do it ourselves,” he said. The volunteers started with the most badly-damaged areas in Ghulail, Qurayat, and Tha’aliba with “great” cooperation from the residents, he said. “There was no time to wait as we saw our already poor district becoming more and more of a fertile breeding ground for diseases,” Saeed said. The volunteers were joined by the chiefs of the three neighborhoods, private businesses, and charity organizations including WAMY. As the volunteer work expanded, so did its job and it is now providing food and clothes to the flood-stricken residents, Saeed added.
“We are hoping to receive some support from the newly formed JCCI board members for the clean-up operation and we expect relief aid to pick up steam and gather more momentum,” he said.
Muhammad Al-Attawi, another resident of Ghulail District, said the flood has turned the district into an environmental disaster and the mayoralty knows it.
“I hope that the failure to help us is not a question of racial discrimination,” he said.
The volunteer group said that it has no deadline to finish the job, but will continue as long as needed to secure the three crowded and mud-covered neighborhoods. The group just needs support from the community as it will no longer wait for the Mayoralty, said Abdulaziz Taha, a volunteer leader.
–Agencies