Najeeb Yamani

Local Quality of Life Before Global... Oh Jeddah Municipality

13 July 2026 - 00:05 | Last updated 13 July 2026 - 00:05

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The Jeddah Municipality announced the official joining of the city to the global "Quality of Life Initiative," which is overseen by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), with support from the Quality of Life Program Center in the Kingdom.

This announcement comes "as part of a strategic step aimed at measuring and monitoring the quality of life of residents in Jeddah, exchanging knowledge, solutions, and innovative experiences with other member cities around the world, and enhancing urban policies that make Jeddah a more inclusive and sustainable city," in addition to "the municipality's efforts to achieve integration with relevant entities to improve the living, social, and economic environment, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030."

And in response to the municipality's call for Jeddah residents to take the initiative to participate and express their opinions to evaluate their current living experiences, measure levels of safety, the availability of local services and their quality, along with measuring their connection to their communities, I take this opportunity and proceed to address many aspects that collectively work against the goals of quality of life and go far from the paths leading to this noble objective. These aspects are not recent; rather, they have long afflicted Jeddah, the bride, passed down from one mayor to another, disfiguring her face, erasing her identity, and dissipating her luster. A quick look at them is necessary before thinking about joining global initiatives. What does the bride need a dress to show off at an international exhibition if she is essentially covered in worn-out rags and tattered shreds?

Look at any of her streets, you will see nothing but holes and bumps, many of them caused deliberately under the watch of the municipality. Every morning we wake up to bulldozers, with roads cordoned off and their entrances and exits blocked by concrete barriers, to start the journey of digging that lasts days and weeks in developmental projects for the benefit of Jeddah. When finished, the backfilling is done haphazardly, and a thin layer of asphalt is applied, like salt in the eye of a municipality inspector. Within days, patches, grooves, holes, and deformed streets appear, some low and others high. With the multiplicity of excavating and refilling companies, the streets have become a series of dips and rises, holes and traps for cars, dangerous bumps where no one is safe from falling into them if hidden or submerged in water. The damage to your vehicle increases, and your regret and sadness for your city grow. The result is distorted images and bleak scenes on the face of the bride.

Could the municipality not have compelled these companies to restore the roads to their former condition as they were before the haphazard digging and backfilling? Why not impose on them standard specifications for asphalt and paving, according to a disciplined schedule, and immediate monitoring?

If you turn your gaze towards the garbage containers, you will find them wide-mouthed, emitting foul odors and suffocating gases, swarmed by flies and insects that breed and multiply, joined by stray cats, crows, and rats. Containers overflow with trash that has graced the street ground with its filth, polluting the air with stench, waiting for collection however it happens late in the evening, after the time has passed to remedy the environmental damage that has escaped and overflowed.

As for the tree population, no doubt you will encounter the "Pozzolana" (likely referring to the invasive tree species), which has settled in all streets, with its bleak fruits and gloomy leaves. Everything about it is unsuitable as a sight that a city striving for global status and quality of life would enjoy.

Its odious roots do not recognize asphalt layers; they deform, destroy, and uproot sidewalks,

and extend underground, threatening the infrastructure of homes and streets. Its leaves are constantly falling, adding to the accumulated dirt in the streets, and its ugliness increases with any sprinkle of rain, becoming a pungent odor and a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Its branches climb electricity poles, block their lighting, and burn out bulbs, darkening the streets, spreading gloom, and destroying quality of life. They extend in all directions, with no shame from the pruning shears, making their shade a home for insects, pests, and the cawing of crows.

Crows! By God, that alone is a great calamity. What city seeks global quality of life while waking up to the cawing of crows, spending its daylight hours watching this squawking flock roaming the rooftops without accountability, covering the bride's sky with its darkest black?

In the municipality's gardens, rats and rodents have dug grooves and made them pastures and homes, summering and wintering without harassment or accountability, emerging in broad daylight and pleasant evenings, threatening the lives of garden visitors.

This is some of what has afflicted the face of the bride, O Municipality, with all honesty. There is no exaggeration or fabrication, no hyperbole or injustice. We say it for the sake of truth, nothing more. The effort exerted is no doubt appreciated, but it falls short of what is hoped for, given the available capabilities first, and the high ceilings raised by Saudi Vision 2030 in expectations disciplined with the hallmark of achievement that distinguishes it from faint dreams. Meeting aspirations for a quality of life that matches global requirements demands a perceptive and deep attention to essential needs that will enable the bride to reach a place befitting her, to come out in full adornment, boasting among her peers. Only then will waving the handkerchief of global status have meaning that delights her residents and visitors, and instill in their hearts the certainty of full entitlement to compete with beautiful cities in pride, beauty, and splendor.

The Jeddah Municipality announced the official joining of the city to the global "Quality of Life Initiative," which is overseen by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), with support from the Quality of Life Program Center in the Kingdom.

This announcement comes "as part of a strategic step aimed at measuring and monitoring the quality of life of residents in Jeddah, exchanging knowledge, solutions, and innovative experiences with other member cities around the world, and enhancing urban policies that make Jeddah a more inclusive and sustainable city," in addition to "the municipality's efforts to achieve integration with relevant entities to improve the living, social, and economic environment, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030."