Municipal workers in Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city rushed to pump water and clear damage on Friday after flooding from torrential rains killed at least two people.
Nearly 180 millimetres of rain fell in Jeddah within six hours on Thursday, the highest amount recorded in 13 years. The flat terrain and high water table along that part of the Red Sea coast make it particularly vulnerable to flooding.
Floods in 2009 left more than 120 people dead, and in 2011, ten people died. In 2017, de facto Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched an anti-corruption campaign in which arrests were made over the misallocation of funds. This was blamed for the failure of the city’s drainage system.
However, residents say they have seen little improvement in municipal services.
In the past decade or so, Jeddah has installed two drainage canals and a 23-foot-high dam to deal with floodwater. Earlier this year, it allocated $106 million to upgrade drainage systems.
Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed has directed more resources toward what he calls “gigaprojects,” including luxury seaside resorts and yachting marinas, a sports-and-entertainment complex featuring a Six Flags park, and a $500 billion city-state that will rise from the desert, with nine million people living in a skyscraper that stretches for over 120 kilometres.
While the crown prince has announced a $20 billion revitalisation project in Jeddah, the authorities there have started by levelling dozens of dwellings in neighbourhoods occupied largely by migrants. The government says these were built illegally and foster criminal activities.
At the same time, the government has clamped down on political rights, arresting dozens of people for criticism of its policies and performance.
[Photo: Amer Hilabi/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images]