By Ibrahim Alawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Visitors to Jeddah’s seafront have criticized the municipality for banning people from swimming in four areas designated for the purpose.

The residents were thrilled when the municipality opened the beaches on the Corniche for swimmers but their happiness was short-lived.

Without citing any good reason, the municipality has closed down the beaches, which together covered an area of 50,000 square meters.

The municipality has assigned a number of supervisors to watch the beaches so that no one will dare to go down into the water.

It has, however, kept the Alexandria beach open for the swimmers but it only has an area of 600 square meters.

The residents were split over the reasons behind the closure of the beaches.

Some of them said the beaches were not clean and full of seaweeds and gases while others said the municipality had fears that the sewage water might be mixing with the seawater, especially after some swimmers have complained of a bad smell.

Abdul Salam Al-Shihri, a resident, said Jeddah had always suffered from a lack of clean beaches though it has long sandy shores.

“Jeddah is a tourist coastal city with no beaches where people can go swimming,” he said.

Khalil Al-Jabarti, another resident, was surprised that the inhabitants and millions of visitors would not find beaches to swim in the Red Sea coastal city.

“We are suffering from a lack of clean beaches. The prices of swimming pools in the entertainment cities are unaffordable to the low-income people,” he said.

Jabarti said their children have no place to practice swimming along the Red Sea Corniche except the Alexandria beach, which is very small.

The residents asked the municipality to review its decision and to reopen the beaches for swimming.

Jeddah Municipality bans swimming in sea for no reason