RIYADH, 6 May — The black market price of a tanker of drinking water crossed SR1,200 in Riyadh on Friday. Officials in the city of over 4 million people have mobilized to meet the increasing demand for water as residents queued hours for a chance to buy water delivered in huge tankers.
The capital is experiencing a serious drinking water shortage after two huge pipes carrying desalinated water from the Eastern Province burst last week, cutting 30 percent of water supplies to the city.
The people in the city consumes an average of 315.8 million gallons (1.2 billion liters) of water daily. Forty percent of this comes from underground wells around the city.
The remaining 60 percent is carried a distance of 600 km by pipeline from power and water desalination plants in the eastern coastal city of Jubail. Two of the pipes burst last week because of corrosion, authorities said, adding that their repair would take at least one week.
The security officials have stepped up their surveillance at water distribution centers in an attempt to ensure that black marketeers don’t exploit the current crisis.
According to sources at the Water Department, the situation showed signs of improvement on Friday. An increase in availability of tanker trucks cut short the waiting times for many residents.
The department, in a drive to prevent water wastage, booked about 500 house owners during the last three days.
Some of the licensed water contractors complained that the shortages have caused huge losses to them in the past several days because they could not deliver to private companies with whom they had water-supply contracts. The contractors said they would sue the Saline Water Conversion Corporation for damages.
A rumor circulated that several in-patients were discharged from the Riyadh Medical Complex at Al-Shumaisi due to water shortage. However, this was denied by an official of the hospital who said the hospital had both sufficient supplies and reserves of water.
A number rest-house owners who operate their own bore-wells generously donated water while several preachers of the Friday prayers emphasized the importance of economy in the water consumption.
