City officials in Jeddah have admitted that the desalinated drinking water in Rabwa district had become contaminated with sewage. The confession was worthy of appreciation. I commend the manager of Jeddah’s Water Projects Administration, Abdul Rahman Al-Muhammadi, for his boldness in acknowledging the mistake.
But admitting the truth or condemning a bad situation isn’t enough. City officials should be doing more to identify points where drinking water is becoming contaminated.
The city’s residents have suffered enough and are fed up with horrible smells, crows, African gangs and dengue fever. They really don’t need anything else, especially problems related to drinking water.
The talent show of contamination continues in Jeddah where illegal workers market large amounts of rotten fish in Al-Baghdadiah and other areas of the city. These toxic loads covered with flies are delivered using very old-fashioned methods. Food merchants need more regulations.
Because Jeddah has its own charisma, I want to talk a bit about drinking water factories in this charming city. There are 136 factories that sell contaminated water in Jeddah that’s not suitable for drinking. This is exactly a quarter of the number of water factories in the city.
What’s funny is that the water administration asked these factories to correct their situations.
Correction isn’t exactly a sufficient solution. The Jeddah municipality received a list with the names and locations of these factories, but they are still working under license. Why?
That’s not everything. There are 2,470 neglected, old and rusty water trucks in Jeddah to transfer drinking water to homes.
The Ministry of Water has integrated an internal network at Al-Ashyab station and connected it directly with cameras so that Minister of Water Abdullah Al-Hussayen could watch. The network is provided with a computer to register information about citizens and residents. The ministry makes sure to organize the process of water tanks so that no resident or citizen monopolizes a large number of water tanks under their names.
