Phase 1 Glitch in Jeddah Cleanup

Friday, 07 December 2007

By Adel Al-Malki

JEDDAH - The completion of phase one of the Municipality's Jeddah cleanup project seems to have already met a glitch.The new blue plastic garbage bins are smaller than their orange metal predecessors.As a result, garbage spills out on to the street far sooner than before. The new blue bins are installed by Alwan cleaning company, one of three private companies recently contracted for city-cleaning operations - the other two being Dallah and Sadaqah.Under the contract, these companies have to deploy new equipment and undertake a whole range of cleaning work that is expected to dramatically improve hygiene in the city.However, now it appears that the bright blue bins are attracting more attention that before about the long-standing problem of garbage spilling over on to the streets and becoming breeding grounds for pests and disease.The first phase that's completed included putting in place a mechanism to regularly wash pavements, clean beaches, canals, bridges, tunnels and graveyards, collect bodies of dead birds and animals and clear or prevent water and sewage leaking on to the streets.The first phase covered central, north and south Jeddah, said Emaad Bukhari, suggested that things would improve as the project progresses."The work started on specific bases, he said. "Contractors of the new and old contracts are coordinating.There is daily follow-up and weekly reports about the progress."He said they are following a timetable for each region of the contract, and have alternative plans ready in case a need arises for replacement by default."The municipality formed two emergency teams to face the emergency situations during the replacement situation" Bukhari said.In central and north Jeddah, 1807 garbage containers were distributed, in addition to allocating 18 garbage trucks and 178 workers.In the south, 1,902 new garbage bins are in place and 547 workers on the job.In all, the first phase involved 1,600 workers, 55 supervisors and 96 units of new equipment."The second phase will involve the rest of Jeddah and will be completed in the end of this month" Bukhari added.