JEDDAH, 11 September 2006 — Saudis are finding a new source of employment with the Jeddah water department in Aziziah district showing its preference for them.
This follows complaints from many expatriates at the department over the weekend that its officials had been showing preference for Saudis to queue up for water trucks.
A visit to the department, where there is a continuous flow of trucks filling up water and transporting it to different parts of the city, showed that a number of expatriates had been turned away from queuing up for water trucks during the day.
“Only Saudis need to queue up, the rest can come after Maghreb or Isha,” was the curt reply being given by the department’s officials,” said an Egyptian expatriate.
“I’m here from 10 a.m. and have to wait until Maghreb to get a truck of water,” said Tajuddin Ahmad, a middle-aged Pakistani.
“I tried to explain to the department officials that although I am an expatriate I want to buy a truck of water for the building owned by a Saudi, but this fell on the officials’ deaf ears.”
Many other expatriates of different nationalities said the “strange attitude” of the department officials had been pushing them toward black marketeers.
