Dump’s Days Numbered

Thursday, 01 November 2007
By Adel Al-Malki
JEDDAH - This city's municipality will install new machines to control the garbage yard, which will allegedly prevent illegals from starting fires in that area, city officials said.
Twenty observers will also monitor the site with the power to arrest scavengers who come to the location to take advantage of the scraps of iron and copper. "The municipality has held big campaigns in the garbage yard to fight fires there," said Jeddah Mayor Adel Faqih.
He said that the municipality will soon move garbage a new landfill that will follow world standards to preserve the surrounding environment, which will impact positively on the city, citizens and residents.
The new site, which will cost up to SR30 million for a 4.5-million square meter landfill, will be located about 25 kilometers east of the Beriman bridge.
"After completion of the new location, the old one will be closed and will be converted to parkland," he said "(The old dump) caused environmental problems for the citizens who live in the surrounding areas, particularly as it receives large quantities of waste, which was leading to a number of fires," Faqih said.
The current dump received about 1.3 million tons of waste last year.
In a related event, three companies signed contracts with the municipality for five years to clean Jeddah districts with value of SR 900million.
"The new contracts divide Jeddah into three separate zones: North, south and center, and gives SR300 million for cleanliness projects in each of these areas," said Khaled Aqeel, the Under Secretary for Services in the municipality.
Aqeel added that the municipality will increase the number of containers in the city to more than 45,000, and employment to more than 7,000 cleaners.