Poop flood threatens Jiddah

Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, was hit with massive flooding (which killed a few people) several weeks ago. Apparently, this has also caused a problem with the city's sewage reservoir.

Yes, that's right, a sewage reservoir. Appropriately named "Musk Lake" (probably because some more appropriate names, like "Funk Lake" or "Stinky Poo Lake" don't translate well into Arabic).

What this does is show what water supply and sewage treatment are like in the Third World, many places --- even an affluent Third World country like Saudia Arabia, brimming with petrodollars. Even when the city is the jumping-off spot for the most important single event in the life of a Muslim, the must-do-once pilgrimage to Mecca.

What Jiddah does with its sewage is truck it up into the hills and dump it into Musk Lake. Apparently this wonderful (???) idea has been working -- apparently the prevailing winds must not blow toward Jiddah or Mecca -- up until this recent round of flooding. Because what you don't expect in a desert is sufficient rainfall to fill your reservoir to dangerously high levels -- and thus endanger the downstream populace with the spectre of a dam breach -- releasing not just a flood, but a flood of poop.

Not a pretty prospect.

I can think of worse things pouring through your city -- a massive tsunami, or like the lava flow from Nyiragongo that went blazing through downtown Goma (see links below) -- but not many.


Here's a map; I suspect Musk Lake is in the northeast corner.


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Goma lava 1


Goma lava 2


Goma lava 3


Goma lava 4