JEDDAH, 30 May — Many times during the last month or so, the Red Sea north of Jeddah has turned an opaque milky white. The normally crystalline waters, home to Saudi Arabia’s world famous reefs and myriad forms of marine life that depend on them, have been threatened by a huge white slick of dumped building material.
The pollution, which comes from discarded materials from a major building project north of Obhur Creek, regularly forms a streak of pollution from 2 to 5 kilometers long. The slick was very evident for eight days from 15 through 23 June.
As the particles of dust and waste material move through the water, they settle on the sensitive coral polyps that are the living part of the reef system. "What happens then," said one local marine biologist, "is that the polyps spend time trying to clean themselves, stop feeding and die."
The result, as he put it, is "a moonscape of dead, white coral."
So dense is the cloud of particles that bathers from Sheraton Village have had to move south to other beaches. "The water is so filthy that often visibility is less than one meter," said one swimmer.
Barges weighed down to the gunwales with waste have been seen moving out to sea. A few hours later, they return empty.
"It’s clearly being dumped somewhere fairly close inshore but out of sight," said one long-term resident of North Obhur. "Wherever they are dumping it, there are so many reefs off Jeddah, the dumping is bound to do irreparable damage."
Early in June a symposium was held in Riyadh for "World Environment Day." One of the organizers was the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development.
Dr. Mohammed ibn Abdul Raouf ibn Hussein, chairman of the organizing committee, said the symposium discussed scientific papers dealing with environmental regulations, environmental pollution and environmental management and technology and environmental awareness."
While the symposium was meeting, the construction pollution was destroying the reefs.
The Shoura Council has endorsed the draft for general regulations on the environment and one of their particular concerns is "environmental problems such as the preservation of (the Kingdom’s) coastline, natural life and the indiscriminate pollution in its cities."
The Ministerial Council for Environment headed by Prince Sultan, second deputy prime minister and minister of defense and aviation, produced a report which "supports the country’s continuous progress based on a healthy and safe environment."
It goes further. It stresses the need to "take care of the management and safe disposal of solid and liquid wastes when planning new urban development schemes."
It even emphasizes "the need for the protection of natural resources without unnecessary depletion or pollution."
The pollution north of Obhur runs counter to all of these. Someone is dumping waste which is polluting and damaging into a virtually virgin environment against all the best environmental advice and guidelines.
"If the appropriate authorities do not act quickly," said the marine biologist, "the solids and chemicals released from the building waste will kill the reef." A domino effect will then begin. First, reef-dwelling fish will die and the bigger fish that prey on them will disappear as their food source is no longer there. Result: the local fishing industry will cease to exist and with it, a number of Saudi livelihoods. The reefs will become moonscapes. Result: local tourism and Saudi livelihoods will go. Gradually, because living coral is not renewing the reefs, the self-replacing barrier will fall away. Result: the sea will reclaim the land that new development projects are being built on.
The Jeddah Conference Palace has held exhibitions to "impress on the young people of our city our concept of environmentally friendly practices."
It is an insult to those same young children to encourage their awareness and efforts toward preserving their environment on one hand while systematically destroying it on the other.
