By MUHAMMAD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWS
JEDDAH: The Mayor of Jeddah has ordered the municipality to speed up the process of emptying a lake behind the precautionary dam that had formed due to the flooding disaster in the city.
Adel Fakieh also announced on Thursday that a national company specializing in the construction of dams would construct the Al-Samir dam.
The structure will be seven meters high, 160 meters long and 25 meters wide with 10 large water pumps.
The mayor, accompanied by senior municipality officials as well as geologists from King Abdul Aziz University, toured parts of east Jeddah affected by the November flashfloods.
“The draining of the lake should be expedited to ward off any dangers that might result from the rising level of ground water in districts east of the Al-Haramain Expressway. We should also follow good environmental and health practices and ensure water pumped to the sea is not polluted,” he said.
The municipality had finished extracting about five million cubic meters of water that had accumulated in front of the precautionary dam. It also started transporting water that had accumulated behind the dam in Al-Asala Wadi to the sea early last week. The municipality has mobilized enough manpower to quickly pump out the water behind the precautionary dam, which do not contain harmful pollutants because it is rainwater. Tests have been carried out to verify this.
The water is being pumped through pipes connected to a cement canal one kilometer long. From there, it travels to the northern valley canal en route to the sea. The mayor said the water behind the precautionary dam had formed a lake 15 meters high with a volume of about 20 million cubic meters.
“The remaining quantity of water that needs extracting is about 11 million cubic meters,” he said.
The mayor said a million cubic meters would be emptied every week and expected the lake to be completely dry within 60 days.
“It will then act as a safety net against future floods, protecting Al-Samir and other eastern districts.” Meanwhile, the municipality confirmed water being pumped out did not contain any sewage.
“We have prevented water tankers from pumping any waste into the Musk Lake. We are now treating the sewage water, which will be used for irrigating the eastern forest, the trees and gardens,” a municipal official said.
However, a number of eastern districts are worried about underground water leaking into their neighborhoods. Residents said they were having difficulty going in or out of their homes.
Arab News
