Saudi police have detained more than 40 people for questioning in connection with last months flooding disaster in Jeddah. They include current and former officials as well as contractors and engineers, and others in the property business.

According to the Saudi Gazette, eight people were taken awayfrom the mayor's office on Sunday morning – including four department heads, and a former head of the Projects Department.

It appears that at this stage those concerned are simply being questioned and are not facing charges, at least for the time being.

The action is largely a response to unprecedented levels of public anger and unusually sharp criticism in the Saudi press in the wake of the floods, which killed about 150 people according to official figures (but possibly far more). However, the Crossroads Arabia blog is sceptical about how high up the investigation will go:

Whether these [officials, etc] are the only ones responsible (unlikely) or the most responsible is open to question. Questionable, too, is whether these individuals are the ones most ‘detain-able’ through lack of high-level connections.

One issue under investigation is the apparent misuse of public funds in connection with the city's drainage system. As The National newspaper puts it:

The Jeddah municipality said that it was only able to complete 30 per cent of the drainage system in the city due to the lack of adequate funds provided by the ministry of finance. The ministry said it allocated sufficient funds to do the job. 

The other main issue relates to land sales and building permits in areas affected by the floods. The National explains: 

As housing costs in central Jeddah are expensive, especially for lower-wage earners, many of them are forced to live on the outskirts, settling in valleys and low-lying areas and obstructing water passageways.

Much of this development was illegal. How much of it is attributable to corruption and how much to official negligence is still to be established.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 29 December 2009.