COVID-19: Saudi Arabia allocates 3,445 buildings for alternative housing
Buildings to be used as temporary shelters for workers living in overcrowded sites
Cairo: Saudi education authorities are set to provide more than 3,000 buildings to serve as alternative residences for workers, currently living in cramped places, as part of the kingdom’s efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Education Minister Hamad Bin Mohammad Al Sheikh has directed that 3,445 buildings linked to his ministry in different parts of the country be handed over to the Ministry of Municipal and Village Affairs to render successful the latter’s plan in providing alternative housing for workers, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.
The buildings have been listed by an ad-hoc committee to be used as temporary accommodation sites across the kingdom, the report said.
“All the ministry’s human and technical resources are utilised to support the efforts of the state and its institutions for limiting the spread of the coronavirus,” Hamad said. “The education Ministry acts in integration with national efforts and works within one team to overcome the pandemic,” he added.
The Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Village Affairs has recently set up an electronic platform for registering residential buildings to which workers can be relocated to fight the coronavirus.
Individuals and businesses have been requested to log on to the platform and register buildings that can be used for labour housing and note whether those buildings are for renting or donation.
The ministry will then sort out the registered buildings and check their compatibility with the set sheltering conditions and hygienic rules. Those buildings can be residential blocks, apartments, rest houses, hotels, schools, factories and hospitals.