Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi

 

My article last week was about various aspects of street cleaning in Jeddah and the living conditions of cleaning workers. A total of five companies have been awarded nine contracts to clean the city, in addition to another company to monitor their performance. The mayor of Jeddah himself carries out inspection tours of various districts of the city and holds regular review meetings with the concerned officials and contractors. The meetings evaluate shortcomings in the execution of the cleaning contracts and propose effective solutions to upgrade the standard of cleaning in each district of the city. All of this is being done in light of the mayoralty’s utmost keenness to undertake the cleaning of the city in the best possible manner.



My focal point in the article was to draw attention to the human element of the issue, represented by the cleaning workers. I pointed out that this is the crucial factor with regard to the efficiency and standard of the cleaning work. Efficiency and high standards  can never be achieved without providing an attractive and appropriate salary for cleaning workers after taking into account the amount and kind of work they are doing. Awarding cleaning contracts to a number of companies and appointing another company to monitor their performance, in addition to intensifying inspections by mayoralty officials, will be successful only if the workers are given their due rights with regard to their salaries and allowances. In the event of any failure in this respect, there will be a repetition of what has happened in the past.



Today, I would like to highlight some features of the cleaning work in Makkah, the holiest city for Muslims around the world. Alsharq Arabic daily recently carried a report about this topic which was based on the statement of Muhammad Al-Maurie, director general of the cleaning department at Makkah Mayoralty. Al-Maurie said that recently signed cleaning contracts for Makkah, worth a total of SR2.5 billion, will not be put at risk by relying only on street cleaners from a single nationality. He said that more than 11,000 cleaning workers from different nationalities will be recruited, and that this would help avoid a situation in which workers join hands in blocs and go on strike as happened during the period of the previous contractor.



Al-Maurie said that the new contracts are being given to five contractors who are specialized in undertaking cleaning projects and have long experience in this field. He pointed out that awarding the project to a number of contractors instead of confining it to a single one would lead to an upgrading of the standard of cleaning by enhancing competitiveness.



According to Al-Maurie, there will be separate uniforms for cleaning workers under each contractor. “We will enforce a strategy on every contractor, and this will start with ensuring the provision of adequate housing facilities, fulfilling hygienic requirements, and  providing a suitable environment for the comfort of workers. The operation plan for the cleaning work will be subject to high tech monitoring,” he said. He also noted that implementation of the new contracts will be different from previous ones. Each type of cleaning service will be classified and there will be a special team to manage each of these services.



What the Makkah Mayoralty official said was similar to the statement made by the Jeddah Mayoralty official last week. Both of them noted that the old method of awarding cleaning contracts to a single company was defective and that the mayoralties would no longer continue to do so. Relying on a single cleaning company or contractor did not prove to be successful in Jeddah and Makkah, and that eventually led to a deterioration of the standard of cleaning in both cities. Hence, the mayoralty officials have decided to write multiple contracts and award them to a number of companies.



What we found new in the statement of the Makkah Mayoralty official is that the mayoralty will hire more than 11,000 workers from various nationalities so as to avoid the formation of blocs of workers or the staging of strikes by workers. Moreover, SR2.5 billion is a very large amount for cleaning, and it would help make Makkah the cleanest city in the country if the amount is utilized prudently.



The statement of Al-Maurie contains assertions and promises that contractors will be more rigorously monitored by mayoralty officials than they were in the past and that stringent action will be taken against those contractors who show laxity in ensuring that their workers are carrying out their duties effectively and that they are not working illegally when they are not on duty.



But such assertions are not going to be successful and effective unless the workers are given their full rights and unless these are guaranteed by incorporating a provision for these rights in the labor contract. Also, their salary must be attractive and it must be fixed by the mayoralty instead of leaving it to the contractor to decide.



There should be specific provisions in the cleaning strategy in order to ensure that workers receive adequate housing facilities with the required standards of hygiene. There should not be a situation in which large numbers of workers are required to live together in congested rooms. I believe that a worker will do his duty promptly and will not be lazy and negligent if his salary and living conditions are good.



Heads of families, housewives and members of the public should realize that cleaning workers are doing a difficult job that is neither simple nor easy. Therefore, we have to assist them by depositing only closed garbage bags in trash bins. Passersby should not throw trash in the street and should only deposit it in the bins provided for that purpose. We have to follow the words of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in this regard: Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet (pbuh) said: "Iman (Islamic faith) has more than 70 branches. The most excellent among these branches is the saying of "Laailaaha ill Allah" (there is no God but Allah), and the smallest branch is to remove an obstacle from the wayside.”



It is the duty of everyone to respect and value the sublime position of Makkah as the holiest place on earth and to show gratitude to Allah for this by keeping it neat and clean.

 

 — Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com