THE GREAT JEDDAH FLOOD: CONTINUING CONCERN ABOUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 JEDDAH 000465

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PPD, SE/S-O, CA/OCS/ACS-NEA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/2019
TAGS: AEMR ASEC CASC ECON KPAO PGOV SA SENV
SUBJECT: THE GREAT JEDDAH FLOOD: CONTINUING CONCERN ABOUT
DAMS, DRAINAGE, LEADERSHIP (CORRECTED COPY)

REF: A. JEDDAH456

B. JEDDAH457

C. JEDDAH460

JEDDAH 00000465 001.4 OF 004


Classified By: Consul General Martin R. Quinn for reasons 1.4 (b) and (
d)



1. (C) SUMMARY: Public and media condemnation of the Saudi
local government continues two weeks after flash floods
inundated Jeddah. Concern has shifted from the plight of the
flood victims to broader issues such as the disaster
investigation and a Shoura Council meeting yesterday which
urged government departments to prepare strategic plans for
dealing with floods and other natural disasters. Public worry
about the condition of the "Misk Lake" dam, briefly at the
point of panic a week ago, has eased somewhat. However,
awareness is growing of the long-term hazard, especially in
the event of renewed rain, and the Jeddah City Council is
meeting on Wednesday to consider next steps, including a
possible request for foreign/US expert assistance. Critics
have condemned official mismanagement and corruption while
calling for independent oversight of government actions and
seeking foreign expertise in urban planning, some alleging
the involvement of royals in land sales in the flood zone.
Opinion is divided over whether the current activism and
open criticism of the authorities will result in permanent
positive changes, with some predicting the official
investigative commission established by the King will stop
short of publicly identifying and punishing those who
mismanaged Jeddah's infrastructure. END SUMMARY.


Some streets still flooded, more rain possible
-------------- --



2. (C) Almost two weeks after flash floods struck Jeddah in
what is being billed as "Jeddah's Katrina" (reftels),the
hardest hit district, Quwaizah, in southeastern Jeddah,
continued to have a foot of water on its major streets when
ConGen officers visited it on Friday and Saturday.
Relatively limited government assistance, such as food
distribution and the presence of Civil Defense forces, was
apparent. According to press accounts, the floods claimed
116 lives (including a 3-year-old US citizen),damaged more
than 7,000 properties, destroyed upwards of 7,000 vehicles,
and displaced at least 22,000 residents. King Abdulaziz
University, situated opposite Quwaizah, is reported to have
suffered losses estimated at SAR 1.6 billion ($427 million)
due to the flood. With more rain possible and fears that a
reservoir of raw sewage, located east of Jeddah at an
elevation of 125 meters above sea level, will overflow into
the city, the Consulate General issued a warden message
advising US citizens in Jeddah to closely monitor weather
forecasts and exercise extreme caution in traveling by road
in the event of further rain or flash flooding.


Misk Lake and the "preventive dam" -- the danger
-------------- ---



3. (SBU) A member of the Jeddah City Council (and until two
weeks ago its chairman),Dr. Tarek Fadaaq, a city planner,
briefed CG Saturday on the city's concerns regarding the
so-called "preventive dam" (reservoir),located immedately
southwest of the Misk Lake sewage dam. The preventive dam
contains "cleaner water" while Misk Lake contains raw sewage.
Saudi engineers are working to fix the problem including
diverting the water to a third dam or wadi (dry river bed).


4. (SBU) The danger is that in the event of moderate to heavy
rainfall there may be more flash flooding in Jeddah,
primarily affecting the areas east of the main north-south
Al-Haramain Ring Road Expressway, which were damaged in the
November 25 flood, including Quwaizah, Kilo 11 and Kilo 14,
but also potentially affecting some of the more affluent west
Jeddah areas. It is thought that the Expressway itself would
act as a partial flood barrier, keeping most of the damage in
the eastern part of the city. The Misk Lake (earthen) dam is
currently at the 10.2 meter level with 13 meters being the
overflow/break point; normal level is 9 meters. The second,

JEDDAH 00000465 002.4 OF 004


"preventive dam" is at 14 meters currently, the capacity
being 15 meters. In addition, there are 13 wadis in Jeddah
running east to west, which have the potential in the worst
case scenario, to fill with water to accommodate heavy
flooding. The area of Palestine Street, on which the
Consulate, a hospital, several hotels, and many businesses
are situated, sits on one of these wadis.


Possible request for US assistance
--------------



5. (SBU) It is possible that as a result of a meeting of the
Jeddah City Council on Wednesday, the Saudis may request US
technical/engineering assistance or consultation (as was done
after the earthquakes near Madina last spring, when the SAG
asked and paid for USGS consultation). With the cooperation
of USMTM, the Mission is developing a picture of what
resources could be brought to bear, but cannot act without a
formal SAG request.


Intense public criticism -- use of social media
-------------- --



6. (C) Public and media criticism of the local government's
failure to prevent and respond to the disaster remains
intense. Al Watan Arabic daily reported that at a soccer
match between Jeddah's two main teams on Saturday spectators
at the stadium held up posters criticizing the government's
handling of the floods. Police quickly took away the signs,
as public protests are prohibited in Saudi Arabia. Columnist
Hussein Shobokshi (strictly protect) characterized the
intensely critical Saudi press coverage of the floods as
"one of the media's occasional flashes of brilliance,"
similar to the coverage of the 2002 fire at a Mecca girls'
school in which students burned to death after religious
police were alleged to have prevented them from fleeing the
building without their abayas. Thankful the floods happened
while the King, 2.5 million pilgrims, international media,
and civil defense forces were near Jeddah for the Hajj,
Shobokshi said that otherwise the problem would have been
ignored. Official media remain constrained, however.
Shobokshi told us on Monday that a local newspaper declined
to publish his criticism of government handling of the
disaster, as he had expected. Members of the public have
bypassed censorship using social media, such as Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, and SMS, to document the destruction,
organize private relief efforts, and harshly condemn those
believed responsible for the largely preventable disaster.
One blogger, citing government officials by name, wrote: "I
spit on all thieves, corrupters and traitors who made life in
Jeddah unbearable."


7. (C) The public have also criticized the religious police
(Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of
Vice or mutawa),generally present in comfortable,
air-conditioned shopping malls, for their absence from relief
efforts. Young Saudi volunteers have flouted the prohibition
on gender mixing and rejected requests to segregate by
gender. One young female volunteer who appeared at the
volunteer gathering point dressed for grubby work rather than
in the usual mandatory abaya was told by a religious
policeman to go home and come back properly covered; she
refused, telling him "to get lost."


Pointing fingers and assessing blame
--------------



8. (C) Contacts and public reports attribute the flood
disaster to a range of factors: (1) the Riyadh government's
unwillingness to appropriate sufficient funds for Jeddah
infrastructure projects (particularly for sewer and storm
drainage systems that might have prevented flooding),(2) a
culture of corruption that ensured only a fraction of
appropriated funds were actually spent on stop-gap measures,
(3) the government's profound lack of experience in urban
planning and project management, and (4) shoddy work by
contractors. Two individuals -- Fahad Al-Suliman (cousin of

JEDDAH 00000465 003.4 OF 004


recently re-elected Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry
board member Lama Suliman),former director of the water and
sewage department, and his then-secretary, Motaz Raslan --
have been singled out for allegedly "stealing billions" of
Saudi riyals intended for drainage projects. (Both are
believed to be living abroad, having enriched themselves at
public expense.) A source at the SAG's preferred
construction company, the Saudi Bin Laden Group, denied any
responsibility for the flooded underpasses or possible
breaches to the containment area for untreated sewage, "Misk
Lake" -- saying the company builds exactly what the
government instructs it to build. Citizens are questioning
why the Bin Laden Group has been selected to build another
barrier around Misk Lake if its previous construction was
inadequate.


Blaming the victims ...
--------------



9. (C) Some Jeddah Municipality officials initially implied
that the flood victims were partially to blame for their
predicament, suggesting they were squatters who had built
homes illegally in a flood plain. Subsequent media accounts
have rebutted the contention. Radio journalist Samar Fatany
(strictly protect) and Shobokshi asserted that several
prominent Saudi princes, including the son of a former Saudi
king, had subdivided and sold to the public through agents
the low-lying land in Quwaizah that bore the brunt of the
flood. They noted the presence of government institutions,
including civil defense and schools, and government services
such as water and electricity as further proof that
structures were built legally -- or at least permitted due to
royal influence.


"Saudization" and failure to seek foreign expertise
-------------- --------------



10. (C) Fatany partly blamed the government's failure to
prevent or adequately respond to floods on Labor Minister
Ghazi Algosaibi's push to employ Saudis, saying Saudi Arabia
lacks expertise and desperately needs foreign talent in key
fields such as urban planning and public administration. Her
husband -- Arab News editor Khaled AlMaeena -- editorialized
today that having failed their own people, it is time for
Saudis to turn to experts in other countries. Shobokshi
agreed, saying that for years he has recommended the Saudi
government consult the Netherlands (experts in holding back
the seas),Britain (for sewer drainage systems),and
Singapore (for waste water treatment). The Saudi Government
has not (yet) requested official US assistance.


A watershed moment for civil society ...
--------------



11. (C) Commentators disagreed whether the flood and its
aftermath would lead to permanent positive changes in Saudi
government and society. Shobokshi described the disaster as
a wake-up call for Saudis, who saw sections of this wealthy,
cosmopolitan city resembling conditions in Bangladesh or
Nigeria. As a result, he predicted the Kingdom will reduce
its level of foreign assistance, saying "Saudis will object
to buying new textbooks for Lebanese children" when there are
un-met needs at home. He doubted whether the flood would lead
to permanent reforms, since internet activists would
eventually exhaust themselves and fall silent. Fatany was
optimistic, praising young Saudis' activism in response to
the flooding, and forecasting "they would sweep away the
corrupt older generation." They and others agreed on the
need for independent oversight of government actions, with
Fatany calling for the government to authorize civil society
groups (currently banned). Some local commentators expressed
skepticism that the investigative committee formed by the
King -- consisting solely of government officials -- would
punish the corrupt individuals responsible for mismanaging
Jeddah, although virtually everyone believes Jeddah Mayor
Adel Faqeeh will be removed from office. A few defend the
mayor, in office five years and the force behind the Jeddah

JEDDAH 00000465 004.4 OF 004


20-year "Strategic Plan"(unveiled barely a week before the
flood),and see him as the unfortunate sacrificial goat.



12. (C) COMMENT: Twelve days after Jeddah's Great Wednesday
Flood, the disaster remains the main topic of conversation in
this city. The media have been granted relatively free
license to castigate local government officials and
contractors deemed responsible for the incident and to keep
the catastrophe in the public mind. In the meantime there has
been a surge of civil society activity in Jeddah, volunteers
coming forth to help flood victims in the face of municipal
inefficiency and incompetence. Among these, the American
International School of Jeddah and the American Business
Group of Jeddah (ABJ) are collecting donations for victims,
to be distributed through licensed local organizations such
as the Al Bir Society and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (JCCI). Post will continue to monitor and report.
END COMMENT.
QUINN