Saudi Arabian officials have been facing renewed public criticism as a result of another round of flooding following heavy rain in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. By end-January 2011, the total of dead was officially given as "at least ten", although the numbers may be higher than that. In the previous bout of flooding, which occurred in November 2009, it was officially acknowledged that local officials had been partly responsible for a death toll that officially ran to 123 (and Saudi media reports suggested may well have been higher), owing to illegal and corrupt decisions to allow inappropriate building in flood-prone valleys and for not ensuring adequate drainage. Over a year ago the Mecca governor, Prince Khalid al-Faisal bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud, instigated an inquiry after many officials had been arrested and some sacked at the initiative of King Abdullah. At the end of January 2011 a further inquiry was announced by the second deputy prime minister and interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud, and again it was announced that "negligent officials" would be punished.

The rainfall in late January that caused the flooding was assessed as greater than in November 2009, yet the much small number of official fatalities suggested that some infrastructural progress had been made in the intervening period. There has not been the same reported concern about sewerage mixing with flood waters either; nor, so far at least, has Saudi anger on various social media reached the same proportions this time around. However, just as in 2009, Saudis have been prepared to talk to the print media about their anger over aspects of the affair, and to some extent this has been reported. Nonetheless, there remain tight restrictions on how far locals can express their grievances-according to reports, Saudi security forces arrested some 30-50 demonstrators in Jeddah on January 28th, who were apparently protesting against the disruption caused by the heavy rains.