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Kuwait Municipality & The Pit

There is a huge pit behind my house at a construction site. They dug the hole to start building but then they found pockets of water underground and construction stopped and they’ve just been pumping the water out for weeks now. On the side of the construction site, the side that is connected to the two-way main road where people also walk there is no barrier. It’s just flat dirt and then instantly a deep three-floor drop. It’s pretty dangerous as you can imagine especially at night.

So I got the Baladiya Whatsapp number and sent them a photo of the problem and the location. No response. I did that over a period of three weeks, every few days sending them a new photo, I even start outlining the problem with a pen tool so they know what I’m talking about. Sometimes they respond asking for the location, most of the time nothing.

I then decided to try reaching out on twitter. I tweeted them telling them I’ve been Whatsapping them about an issue and shared the photos but again no response. Three days later I tweeted to them again still no response. Even a minister reached out to me on twitter and was very nice and stated that even though this issue didn’t fall under their authority, they would still escalate the matter with the municipality. I thought things were finally going to get sorted but two days later and still no change at all.

Finally one of my followers left me a tweet on how my situation reminded him of “The Pit” on one of my favorite comedies Parks & Recreation. I don’t know how I hadn’t seen that but it completely changed my mindset on the subject. Since being serious hadn’t worked I figured I’d inject a bit of humor into the problem. So first thing I did was tweet the municipality “The Pit” song from Parks & Rec and then followed that with my top 3 list of reasons why having no barrier is dangerous.

They never responded to me on twitter obviously but I think they started trolling me back on whatsapp because they responded to a photo I had sent them with a message asking me to write the problem in Arabic. I’ve lost hope that this issue will get resolved but at least I find the whole thing funny now and so I’m less pissed off about it.

Update: It took 14 days of constant nagging and they finally closed up the pit wall!

26 replies on “Kuwait Municipality & The Pit”

I liked that you gave them a top 3 reasons why it’s dangerous ! Hopefully they’ll resolve this ASAP

I kid you not, the first thing that popped in my head after rewading this was that Coldplay song Fix You;

When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something, you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
And high up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try, you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth

Mark, I am into construction and this is a BIG safety hazard. As per Kuwait law construction sites must be barricaded. By the way, I see a porta cabin in the pic, presumably housing the site supervisory team. You may as well get in touch with them and request them for proper barricades.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that Kuwait is a rich country that is still very backward in too many important ways.

one of the things that bothers me about this place on a regular basis is how they permit skyscrapers in the city center without sufficient parking space included as part of the plan.

Every other corrupt act isn’t rubbed into my face as much and i can suffer less bowel troubles because of it.

This is a serious concern and an ticking time bomb.
I’m happy you raised a flag.
The moment a car drops into that pit, it wont be a joke anymore.

I downloaded the municipality app 2 months ago and uploaded a case in regards of an abandoned car in front of my house for the past 1 year, they never showed up or toed the car.

So much for progressive initiative taking complaints to an app then never acting on it.

Simplest solution: when communicating with government ministries/dept, please do it in Arabic. For them, this is official business and need to be done in Arabic.

They responded, and that’s good. I think it will be resolved soon. every country suffer from government bureaucracy even developed countries. the main concern now is safety.

they will resolve it but don’t expected to be overnight, let’s be reasonable. I don’t expect I complain about a car and they just come and remove it, it must be checked for the owner and why is there and how to remove it

Only 12 days ?!

Lets be reasonable, this is not a perfect world and the work force is still 30 or 60%. This is a government sector.

I wonder if pumping all that water out is gonna create a underground gap which could lead to the land collapsing.

They are the most useless people to deal with. I have complained about so many issues and zero responses. I can’t believe they employ thousands of people who actually get salaries. They should be held accountable.

An Arab born and raised in Kuwait.. yet still cant write Arabic?! Thats next level illiteracy! Should have at least sent voice message.

It looks like your trash collection situation in the background is finally under control. You posted a pile of garbage a few years back.

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