Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing Majed Al-Hoqail announced on Monday the success of the ministry’s plan to safeguard the health, safety and comfort of the Hajj pilgrims. He said that a total of 128,000 tons of waste were removed from Makkah and the Holy Sites during the period between Dhul Hijjah 1 and 10 (June 30 –July 9). “A total of 13549 supervisors, observers, drivers and cleaners participated in these efforts, using various types of 912 equipment to dispose of waste around the clock,” he said. Al-Hoqail said the ministry has prepared a system of procedures to receive the pilgrims and make them available all the facilities and services. He noted that the ministry’s action plan was implemented by 22,000 human personnel from the ministry, as well as from Makkah mayoralty, municipalities, and 28 municipal service centers at the Holy Sites. Al-Hoqail said that the ministry continued to launch a package of services to keep pace with the Hajj season, including the launch of the mobile laboratory service, which carried out a number of tasks represented in receiving and analyzing samples of food and water, issuing results to the relevant authorities, and conducting a rapid laboratory examination of the samples received using the latest equipment. Moreover, the minister said, the laboratory is providing epidemiological data and identifying dangerous food, in addition to the detection of physical - chemical - microbial food contaminants, and handle samples of suspected cases of food poisoning, he said adding that the results of these laboratories are obtained immediately or within a few hours.