I was recently looking for a simple piece of information. I wanted to find out the population of a region of Saudi Arabia based on the latest census data. I had found some data, but the numbers were vastly different. When I tried to confirm the information, I got different numbers, adding greatly to my confusion.
I found out that two departments were still using old numbers. The other three departments that gave me numbers — all of which were different from each other — claimed that these were the latest figures. I was frustrated and, quite frankly, embarrassed that my government can’t provide even the most basic and vital information. How can they implement policy with these kinds of discrepancies? How can they recognize problems, much less solve them, without crucial information. If they don’t know how many people actually live in an area, how can they strategize? How can they know how many hospitals to build somewhere? How would they have any idea how many foreigners live among Saudis, legally or otherwise?
My experience trying to find out a simple piece of demographic information led me to the conclusion that there is a great deal of negligence and carelessness going on when it comes to accurate and important information.
I still recall vividly hearing an official at the Education Ministry say a few years ago that such-and-such million students would be going back to school in the upcoming semester. The next day a different official at the same ministry cited a completely different number of students. And the difference wasn’t minor.
My experience trying to find out how many people live in a particular region of the Kingdom wasn’t an isolated one. I had a similar experience concerning some other issue the other day, which compelled me to write this column.
Just how are we measuring our development plans? How does the government decide on the needs of a community for, say, a hospital if the officials involved can’t even agree on how many people live in the area? It would be OK if the differences were minor — that is to be expected. But when the differences are in the millions, that’s an entirely different matter.
