JEDDAH: Residents of Jeddah living close to the dam on the sewage lake (Musk Lake) were assured that the dam did not pose any threat to the city.

Earlier in the day, panic spread among residents of Al-Samir 3 district when Civil Defense, fearing the dam might burst, warned residents to evacuate their homes.

Already nervous since last Wednesday’s disastrous floods which left at least 106 people dead, residents started evacuating their homes and moving to safe places.

Foreign consulates warned their citizens living in the affected areas to prepare to evacuate and move valuables to the highest point in their homes. Hospitals were put on alert but the order was stood down later in the day.

Civil Defense asked residents living close to the dam to leave because, “there is little surplus in the level of water in the reserve dam of the lake,” according to Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal.

Later, at a press conference, Prince Khaled said there was no imminent danger to the people in that area and that the warning of the Civil Defense to the residents of Al-Samir 3 district was just out of extra concern for their safety.

Nevertheless, not taking any chances, many residents east of Al-Haramain Expressway (the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway that was hit hard by last week’s floods) and living close to the lake left their homes. They headed toward the support station established by the Civil Defense in the area to monitor and follow up the situation after Wednesday’s rains and floods.

Abdullah Omar, a resident of Al-Ajwad 2, said he was not planning to leave because he trusted the Civil Defense would give adequate warning if the dam were breaking. “They (Civil Defense) know better. If there is any danger they will warn us with whistles long before,” he said. “My neighbors’ fear emanates from the fact that they did not have news from their original sources.”

Some residents, who vacated their homes, said they were driven to do this by the contradicting reports coming from the concerned government departments.

They pointed out that while some health facilities were vacated, the Civil Defense was saying there was no need for the evacuation as there was no immediate danger from the lake.

Arab News received a number of telephone calls from citizens in districts that are not so close to the lake, including Al-Safa, asking if they had to leave their homes.

Maj. Gen. Adil Al-Zamzami, director of Civil Defense in Makkah province, said the warning issued earlier in the day only affected residents of Al-Samir 3.

He said the Civil Defense and other government departments have appropriate plans, covering all the nine eastern districts, to deal with any emergency.

The lake became the main receptacle for the untreated sewage decades ago. It is estimated that the artificial lake holds about 30 million cubic meters of mostly untreated sewage. (There is a water reclamation facility on location that treats some water for agricultural use.)

The natural rocky embankments and a primary and secondary retaining dam contain the lake. However, environmental engineers have pointed out in the past that the hazardous waste is seeping into the city’s rapidly depleting aquifer.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the Jeddah municipality Ahmad Al-Ghamdi said on Monday that all tests proved the safety and intactness of the lake’s dam.