The Middle East needs a smart solution for stormwater

摘要

“ It never rains but it pours." Aside from being a well-worn proverb, it's also a fact of life for much of the Middle East. In some of the world's most arid countries, the impact of rainfall from sudden storms can cause serious flooding and damage when it hits. Stormwater management can often come in a distant third in terms of priorities behind the supply of drinking water and the handling of wastewater when it comes to infrastructure planning. It's not difficult to see why - at the end of the day every spending body has to make hard choices with its budget, and seasonal or occasional issues like storms are easier to ignore when even the business of finding and supplying enough drinking water to keep the taps running at home is an extreme and daily source of pressure. But the handling of stormwater surges can be a literal matter of life and death, even more directly than is the case with all water infrastructure. The failure of drainage infrastructure in the deadly Jeddah floods of 2009 exacerbated the impact of flooding, leading to massive damage to property and cars, and more importantly a large number of deaths. Many deaths were put down to people trapped on foot or in cars in concreted tunnels or underpasses that filled with water that had nowhere else to go.