A ban on construction in thousands of plots in different residential districts of the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah has been lifted after authorities found it would not block the path of floodwaters during rains.
The mayoralty of Jeddah had imposed the ban as earlier assessments indicated that construction on these plots would block pathways of floods and cause massive flooding similar to the one occurred in November 2009.
However, the civic body has now decided to allow construction in 2,746 plots in 14 residential districts after the chairman of the executive committee for rainwater management, Governor of Makkah Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, formed a committee to study the situation of the plots and whether it would block floodwaters.
A decision on remaining plots from a total of 2,865 plots in the areas would be taken after further studies, the mayoralty said.