in early January, Jeddah municipality pledged to close down the site and move the garbage yard.

"We only hear promises but we don't see action," said Nashi Al-Harbi , resident of Al-Smair neighborhood.

He said only a small part of the old garbage yard has been moved to the new location.About the municipality's pledge to build a fence around the site, he said as he pointed a finger all round the site, "The municipality didn't build anything.

Other residents said they would take their complaints to Makkah Emir Prince Khaled Al-Faisal to end the problem once and for all.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

JEDDAH - The municipality here has identified as many as 90 major sources of coastal pollution, including the towering Jeddah Desalination Plant that's a landmark along the Corniche."The Municipality usedthe GPS system to identify the sites," said Faisal Shawli, director of the Jeddah Municipality's Environmental Sanitation Department. "The process covered all parts of the city such as the Corniche, the main garbage dump (in the northeast) and the sewage dump (further northeast)," he said.

Along the Corniche area, as many as 19 channels from storm-water drainage networks, government quarries and cement factories pour polluting effluents into the sea.

Additionally, there is the smoke emitted from Saudi Electricity Company and Jeddah Desalination Plant, Shawli said.

The Municipality also identified more recent sources of atmospheric pollution from as-yet unidentified places along Jeddah's eastern fringe where tire-fires have been fouling up the air of late.

Shawli said a municipality team is out investigating why people are setting fire to tires and how the problem