The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Local Government for Municipal Affairs, Mustafa Salem, conducted a field tour yesterday of several seasonal river valleys in the Greater Tripoli area to identify the encroachments on them.
Parts of Tripoli seasonal river path cleared
The inspection by the Undersecretary coincides with the Tripoli Public Service Company announcing yesterday that it had started to clean the dry Wadi Mejeneen riverbed from the Salah al-Din area to the Abu Salim area. It reported that work is still continuing to clean the rest of the seasonal river’s path.
The Tripoli Public Service Company said its actions are based on the instructions of the Tripoli Government Emergency and Rapid Response Team.
Meanwhile, the Undersecretary was accompanied on his inspection tour by the Director of the Law Enforcement Department, Major General Abdul Hakim Al-Khitouni, and in the presence of the mayors of the municipalities of Abu Salim, Al-Andalus District, Souq Al-Khamis, Al-Awata, Qasr Bin Ghashir, Sidi Al-Sayeh, and the supervisor of the Al-Mejeneen Dam, affiliated with the Ministry of Water Resources, and Director of the Nawahi Al-Arba Security Directorate.
The tour included a visit to the valleys in the Greater Tripoli area, including Wadi Al-Mejeneen, Wadi Al-Kharooa, and Al-Mejeneen Dam, and inspected the path of Wadi Al-Mejeneen, starting from the municipality of Souq Al-Khamis to the municipality of Abu Salim.
The inspection tour aimed to identify the most prominent problems, obstacles, and bottlenecks that the dams and paths of the valleys inside Tripoli suffer from, and the encroachments on them. It also sought ways to solve these problems, in addition to taking the necessary and urgent measures before the beginning of the winter rains.
Preventing another Derna
The Undersecretary stressed that this visit comes to determine the technical condition of the dams and valley paths to prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of the municipality of Derna and its neighbouring municipalities, and to provide full support to the municipalities.
Mayors of Greater Tripoli discuss river valley
The clearing of the river valley, and the ramifications of the Derna disaster, was also discussed by the mayors of the municipalities of Greater Tripoli in an emergency meeting held at the headquarters of the Abu Salim municipality on Tuesday.
Following that meeting, Greater Tripoli Municipality mayor Ibrahim Al-Khulaifi warned of an impending disaster in Tripoli’s Wadi al-Mejeneen, noting that the valley has not moved on for forty years.
Formation of an Emergency Chamber
The Greater Tripoli Municipality discussions also followed on from the formation by the Tripoli Security Directorate (TSD) of an Emergency Chamber last week entrusted with preparing reports on the paths of the valleys highlighting illegal construction waste, garbage, and other possible obstructions to the flow of water in the seasonal riverbed.
TSD inspects Tripoli’s seasonal riverbed
On Sunday the TSD Committee, headed by TSD head, Major General Khalil Wahiba, also inspected parts of Tripoli’s Mejeneen seasonal river path.
The TSD reported that the visit noted how the riverbed’s features have been blurred due to their lack of flow for years, and inspected the dams built on those valleys and monitored the places where rainwater collects (Wadi Al-Rabea and Al-Mejeneen) to determine its condition and the extent of its readiness for any torrent.
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