Hadramout governorate is the largest and the most prosperous liberated area in Yemen. However, it suffers of many different problems and the lack of the services in most of its cities especially its capital, Mukalla.
The reign was hit by two natural disasters in only one month. The first one was the tropical storm, Sagar, which hit Hadramout the Coast at the first of Ramadan on the 21st of May 2018, and many cities were affected by it especially the city of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout. Before the storm, the city was suffering of the electricity power cut crisis; however, the suffering became worse after the storm. Sagar had destroyed the infrastructure of the city as most of the roads were cut and the main services were off-duty too. Unfortunately, the local authority in the city stood silent and did not do anything to help fixing the situation. Therefore, the suffering of the citizens increased and they could not endure that miserable situation, so they were up in arm and went out to make their voice heard by demanding the local authority in the city to find quick solutions to the issue of the electricity. The angry young people of Mukalla set fire on the roads and closed the entrances and downtown of the city. Fortunately, their voices were heard by the local authority, especially the governor of Hadramout, Maj. Gen. Faraj Salmin Al-Bahssani, who asked them to calm down and promised them to fix the problem of the electricity and try to find eternal solutions for this issue as soon as possible. In their turn, the demonstrators opened the roads and went back home hoping these promises to come true.
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Later, the city faced another problem which was the waste that left after the storm. These dirty areas were a good place and perfect environment for a lot of insects such as flies and mosquitoes which was a warning alarm for spreading a lot of diseases. As a result, Maj. Gen. Al-Bahssani himself led a cleaning campaign, by going to the street and cleaning them to encourage the citizens to follow him and do so. Many young participated in this campaign as well as many volunteer organizations and many educated people. Slowly the infrastructure repaired and there was a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, this relief did not last for so long.
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The city, Mukalla, was with a meeting with another natural danger, which was the tropical cyclone, Mekunu. Mekunu is considered as the most intense tropical cyclone that hit Arabian Peninsula in recorded history. The city was not effected directly, but the people of the city were living tough times; as they know the weak infrastructure of the city and the slow response of the local authority towards the damages of the floods on the city.
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On the last ten days of Ramadan, while Hadrami people were preparing for Eid, the city faced a strong rainy storm. Without any predictions from the Weather Forecast Center, the rain started to pour and the citizens started to worry and waited for a strong torrent, as they knew for sure their city has bad infrastructure. The city suffers of lack of torrents drainage, therefore this amount of rains and torrent would cause a new catastrophe on the city. The city has not recovered yet from the first shock and now it is facing another one. The heavy visitor arrived early as it was expected by the citizens. It was really strong and the city was drowned in water. Due to heavy rain, some cars were floated and some of them were totally destroyed, as a result some of the houses were damaged. The weak infrastructure was destroyed again and this time badly. The electricity was cut again and for long hours, water supplies were cut and many areas in the city could not get water, telecommunications and Internet were cut, dust and mud were everywhere in the city, roads and street were destroyed and rubbish again was everywhere.
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Everything in this city became worse and worse and the local authority and the governor of Hadramout did their best to return the city to its normal life. Ramadan has finished and Eid was announce. The families celebrated their Eid at home, as they could not go anywhere because parks and streets were dirty and full of trash.
Hadramout, the rich city with its many different wealthy, sources lives in dark, drowned in sewage and covered with trash. Hadramout, and Mukalla, need a farsighted plan to repair the city. The city is in need for a good and well infrastructure to face the natural storms. Something should be done to get rid of the trash all over the streets. As well, the city needs a modern and new General Electricity Corporation to come over the power cut crisis. The local authority and the governor of Hadramout, Maj. Gen. Al-Bahssani, are facing a very difficult challenge to rescue this wonderful city and return its beautiful smile. Mukalla must be built well again and the services must be repaired well for the citizens to live in peace and to be the destinations city for the tourists as it is used to be.