By Zain Anbar

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — A number of citizens and residents of Jeddah expressed their anger toward the negligence of their city council head at the council’s first meeting this year held at Al-Nahdah Municipal Center in north Jeddah on Monday.

A total of 210 men and women attended the meeting. The municipal council had not held a meeting for interaction with the public for the past six months.

The head of the council, Abdulmajeed Al-Batati, was questioned by 50 women who asked where their female representative Rasha Hifzi was.

Hifzi was also absent at the council's last meeting.

The women participants said the female activists behind the Baladi Initiative, which pushed for the election of women members to the council, were nowhere to be found at the meeting.

In his reply regarding the absence of Hifzi from the meetings, Al-Batati sai he did not know where she was. However, he claimed that she was informed about the meeting through the council’s What’sApp group and by email.

He excused her absence by saying that she might have genuine reasons that prevented her from attending the meeting.

Regarding the absence of the women behind Baladi Initiative, Al-Batati said the council’s meeting dates were published in local newspapers and posted on Twitter and that is why so women from various districts came to the meeting.

The council showcased its achievements in responding to the recent Jeddah floods and in fighting pollution. The attendees criticized the council’s services and their negligence.

Samira Abu Al-Shamat, who had unsuccessfully contested the city council election, said some of Jeddah’s areas were extremely beautiful while others were absolutely repugnant. Many roads were destroyed and marginalized, not to mention the trash piling up in some districts, she said.

Nawal Fatani said sewage overflowed in Al-Marwah district and the lighting in the district is very dim.

Another attendee said she was from Al-Bagdadiyah district, with is full of flies because of the stench coming from trash containers. She added frequent construction work going on in the district had prevented them from using their cars safely, which get damaged easily because of uneven roads.