Floods sink new housing project in N. Governorate

Manama : A newly constructed housing project in Bahrain was “drowned” by the showers witnessed by the Kingdom during the past few days, while the authorities said it was not as bad as it was portrayed.

A video that was widely circulated online showed heavy flooding at a housing project in the Northern Governorate, claimed to be located in Hamala by the person behind the camera.

Water levels were at least half a metre high, as shown in the video. The man filming revealed that many residents of the newly constructed project have sustained losses and that the water has “ruined” some of their furniture.

“This flooding occurred on the same day of the rain. It’s a miserable situation. Children returning from schools can’t even reach or enter their homes,” the man said.

In its reply to the footage, the Housing Ministry said in a press statement that emergency teams detected only one flooding incident at Hamala housing project since Friday.

“Field visits to the project proved that the site didn’t witness any excessive flooding since the first day of the rainfall (Friday). The deluge could be because of the extraordinary amount of downpours witnessed during these days. The matter is being studied,” the ministry’s statement added.

Additionally, the ministry confirmed that “several rainwater gathering areas were detected at the project site and it was completely removed in coordination with the emergency team of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry.” 

The rainwater drainage networks at the project are currently being inspected to detect any malfunctioning or blockages, the statement added.