JEDDAH, 8 June 2006 — Several Jeddah districts are under the grip of severe water shortage particularly after government officials seized several tanker trucks recently.
In a bid to stop a burgeoning black market in the city, the local water authority arrested more than 100 drivers of water tankers who were trying to smuggle out water to illegal customers.
The situation has further worsened by the frequent disruption in the regular supply of water on the domestic supply lines particularly in the central and southern parts of the city, Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.
Director of Jeddah Water Projects Abdul Rahman Al-Muhammadi blamed the workers of the sewage system for the supply shortage in some parts of the city. The sewage workers have inadvertently broken water mains at three places, Al-Muhammadi said.
The official said seizing more than 100 tanker trucks with their drivers has eliminated the black market in the water supply.
“These tanker drivers used to smuggle out water while the legitimate consumers were waiting for their turn with their priority tickets,” the director said.
The official expressed his helplessness in increasing the volume and frequency of pipe water supply in the city.
“No solutions are currently available to increase water pumping to residential districts as the water resources are limited and the pumps are working to capacity,” he said.
Muhammad Farhan, director of the Saline Water Conversion Corporation’s Jeddah office, said, “The level of maximum quantity of water being pumped to Jeddah, which is fixed at 630,000 cubic meters, has always been maintained.”
Farhan added that the responsibility of his department was to produce water while other departments such as Water Projects undertook the distribution and the repair of supply networks.
The official ruled out any possibility of increasing the quantity of water currently supplied until the commissioning of the Shoaibah-3 desalination plant three years from now. To tackle the current shortage, the official advised all people including mosques and government offices to practice strict economy in consumption.
He also hoped that the closure of schools for summer vacation would ease the pressure on water supply.
