Governments find it difficult, or at least low priority, to plan for rare events. Whether it’s heavy snow in Washington, DC or rain in Saudi Arabia, there’s minimal preparation for extreme weather that will certainly happen sometime, but hopefully not right now.

But it is happening right now in the Kingdom. The Shoura Council is taking up the issue of dealing with heavy rains for which the country and its cities are largely unprepared. I suspect that over the next few years we’ll see major construction projects taking place in the major cities in order to install rain drains. The building of dams and other water retention devices throughout the country will have to be addressed, too.

Shoura to take up bad drainage
Abdulmohsin Al-Harthi

RIYADH – The issue of floods and rainwater drainage will come up for discussions at the Shoura (Consultative) Council soon.
Muhammad Al-Quwayhis, chairman of the Facilities and Services Committee at the Shoura Council, on Friday expressed his discontent at the recurrence of the problem across the Kingdom. Two years ago, he said, he had asked the Shoura Council for a national strategy for draining of floods and rainwater. The Council even endorsed some drainage projects, he said.

It was not difficult, he said, to find a permanent and lasting solution to the problem. The Kingdom, he said, can draw from the system implemented in several countries where it rains far more than Saudi Arabia.

The drainage problem was again in focus last week when rains lashed Jeddah and other cities. Water clogged on streets and still several roads are filled with water.

Al-Quwayhis said the drainage issue will be a main subject during the Council discussions on the mayoralties and municipalities report soon. He alleged that drainage projects were improperly executed and cited the failure of a project undertaken in Makakh. – Okaz/SG

Meanwhile, Arab News reports that the dry lake bed that spans the Qassim Province in northern Saudi Arabia is no longer dry. For the first time in 20 years, the lake is filling with rain water, threatening villages and roads in the region.