SCRAPING A LIVING: An African resident standing by his day’s collection of metal that was salvaged from a demolition site in Jeddah’s Bani Malik district. (AN photo by Hasan Hatrash)

JEDDAH: Mohammed is an African illegal resident who used to earn a living like many others — by extracting metals and other recyclables from the old Jeddah landfill. But since then the old landfill has been replaced with a modern facility, fenced in to prevent scrap pickers. So, Mohammed and countless others have shifted their focus on construction sites.

“Allah is great,” Mohammed said, adding that he is collecting more metal from demolished buildings related to development projects than he used to get from the landfill.

For the most part it seems contractors and property owners don’t mind people coming to collect the metal bits out of piles of concrete chunks waiting to be hauled off and dumped somewhere. People can be seen at demolition sites cutting the iron bars and meshes out of the piles. The metal pieces are loaded into one of the city’s ubiquitous Suzuki mini pickup trucks to be hauled off and sold to metal recycling outfits in south Jeddah.

Recent construction work to widen Prince Majed Street in Jeddah’s Bani Malik district has turned into a boon for these metal collectors. Mohammed, who was reluctant to talk with the reporter at first, was seen along with many African and Arab nationals showing up at these sites to begin extracting the metal bits. Some even brought welding equipment.

Mohammed said that he sometimes bring his children to help him pile the metals by the side of the road until they find a lift down to Khomrah.

These scrap collectors often work alongside municipal contractors, who don't seem bothered by the presence of the metal collectors. It seems they see the benefit of not having to haul off the metal themselves.

The presence of scrap-metal collectors is just one of many noticeable effects of the municipality's ongoing massive public works projects focused on improving roads and sewerage infrastructure.

According to Khalid Baraidah, the head of the municipality's Construction Supervision Department, the buildings that were razed to make room for the expansion of Prince Majed Street were constructed in the past without proper licensing or permissions. Building owners were compensated with up to SR45,000. Most of the demolished structures were commercial shops.

“Owners of illegal structures were not compensated for the price of the land; only for the cost of the structure,” he said. The project also includes building an underpass and a flyover in the intersection between Prince Majed Street and Bakhashab Street.

In a recent press conference, Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh announced a SR1.3 billion yearly budget in which 36 percent has been allocated for road projects. The mayor said that 18 underpass and flyover projects are taking place in the city and 12 more are expected to begin in the coming two years.

This is good news for the scrap-metal collectors like Mohammed.

“I hear there are more projects coming,” he said. “Good news for me.”