Makkah governor: Help me catch land thieves

“The land thieves have taken over government land in east Jeddah that was to be used for health, educational and service projects,” he told a press conference after the inauguration ceremony. “The thieves are depriving the residents of these vital services,” he said.
The opening ceremony was held at Umm Al-Khair dam in east Jeddah and attended by a number of senior officials from the governorate and the Jeddah municipality, including Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed and Mayor Hani Abu Ras.
Answering a question, Prince Khaled said there would be thorough control of all development projects in Jeddah to ensure their smooth implementation.
“There will be supervisors and controllers following up each detail in these projects. There will also be private companies involved in the process to ensure that all the projects are properly functioning,” he said.
Asked about the long-term plan to protect the city from the dangers of rain and floods, the governor said studies were currently under way to execute such projects. “A special company is currently undertaking studies and you will soon hear the good news,” he told the press conference.
The prince, however, cautioned that the projects would take a long time to implement. “They will not be like these quick solutions which were implemented in 110 days. They will take a longer time and will be of a better quality,” he added.
Asked about when the long-term drainage projects would be implemented, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal said time scales were still being decided.
The governor described the development projects in Jeddah as “unique” and said the experience that has come from implementing them should be used by government departments, particularly the ministries of civil service and finance.
“The financial and administrative methods used in the execution of these projects were exceptional and used for the first time in the Kingdom,” he said.
The governor described the coordination between various government departments when executing the development projects in Jeddah as “unprecedented” and said he did not believe that any other region had done this before.
The governor revealed that he wrote urgent letters to various government departments seeking explanations for the delay in the implementation of certain projects. “The delayed projects cost billions of riyals. We wanted to know the reason behind the delay in execution so that we could step in to expedite implementation,” he said.
At the end of the press conference, a woman resident from the Umm Al-Khair district stopped the prince and told him that the residents were dreaming of making their area a model of planning and beauty. The prince promised her that he would do whatever possible to make east Jeddah a blueprint of excellence in development.
She also asked him to put a halt to the actions of some landlords who built high-rises on plots for villas. The prince referred the request to the mayor to take action.
In his inaugural speech, governor said these projects were aimed at providing quick and temporary solutions to the problem of rainwater and added that long-term projects would be executed as soon as studies were completed.
He, however, made it clear that the projects were aimed at mitigating the effects of rain disasters but would not prevent natural calamities. “Nobody can stop natural disasters destined by God,” he said.
Speaking at the event, the mayor said the Umm Al-Khair dam was 1,100 meters long, seven meters high and six meters deep. He said the dam also has an open canal with a length of 730 meters, a width of 23 meters and a depth of 3.5 meters. “This canal was linked to the valley pass leading to the sea,” he said.
Abu Ras said the Al-Samir dam also has an open canal 3,300 meters long and 40 meters wide. “The 4.5 meter-wide canal was also linked to the valley pass going to the sea,” he explained.
The mayor said the two dams were constructed in seven months.