City council hearing expats’ complaints

City council hearing expats' complaints Muhammad Humaidan | Arab News

JEDDAH: The Municipal Council in Jeddah has started holding meetings with expatriate communities in the city to discuss difficulties they face in municipal services. "Our initial focus is to hold meetings with communities that comprise larger populations such as Palestinians, Egyptians and Indians," Chairman of the Jeddah Municipal Council Tariq Fadaeq told Arab News yesterday. Fadaeq said a number of Palestinians attended the first meeting and discussed the general problems they face. The chairman estimated there are 150,000 Palestinians in Jeddah. "Similar meetings are planned for the Indian and Egyptian communities with their consulate officials participating," the chairman said. "With these meetings, we reaffirm the municipal council's concern for the welfare of all residents in the city irrespective of their nationality or citizenship. As the large non-Saudi population in Jeddah deserves attention, the council is doing its best, but within its power, to improve services and utilities," Fadaeq said. The chairman added that the council would listen to complaints from local people on all matters, including the distribution of garbage boxes in residential areas and failure to empty them regularly. He said the council received 150 complaints, most of which have been solved. "Some of them were very simple and were solved in a day. For instance, people in some districts complained about alley cats living in garbage boxes positioned close to their homes upsetting their sleep. We ordered the boxes to be moved a little away from homes," he said. The official said complaints regarding certain municipal policies required more time to solve. He said he discussed the council's new meeting program with Muhammad Tayeb, director general of the Foreign Ministry's branch in Makkah province. Tayeb suggested the meetings be held on a monthly basis. He also wanted the meetings to be held in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry. Fadaeq said the council and the Civil Defense are currently discussing precautionary measures to be taken to face emergency situations in the wake of tremors in neighboring Madinah province.