JEDDAH, 9 January 2007 — Water supply from desalination plants to Jeddah will be increased from 630,000 to 1.3 million cubic meters daily within the next three years, according to Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen.
“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved the increase of water supply from Shuaiba-3 to Jeddah by 150,000 cubic meters daily to meet the growing needs of the city,” he told the Saudi Press Agency.
Hussayen, who is chairman of Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), the main supplier of desalinated water in the country, said his ministry has already made allocations to establish a new plant to supply 150,000 cubic meters of water to Jeddah.
The amount of water previously allocated from Shuaiba-3, which is under construction, was 400,000 cubic meters. The additional supply of 700,000 cubic meters together with the existing supply of 630,000 will bring the total to 1.33 million.
The minister also disclosed plans to establish a number of strategic water storage containers in Jeddah with a capacity of 500,000 cubic meters.
“We have already made allocations for this project under SWCC budget,” he added. The move to pump more water to Jeddah is essential to meet the requirements of its expanding population, which is growing at the rate of 10 percent annually.
Muhammad Habeeb Al-Bukhari, an expert at the Water Research Center of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, urged the authorities to take quick steps to prevent leakage of water from the drinking water network. He estimated the amount of water leaked from the pipelines at 35 percent of the total supply.
Bukhari called for more realistic measures to put an end to the city’s recurrent water problem, especially during summer. “At present there are about four million people in Jeddah. When the new supply arrives after three years the population will increase further to five million. So, the water situation will remain the same,” he told Arab News.
According to him, per capita water consumption in Jeddah is 250 liters per day. “We have to stop leakage of water by installing new pipelines before urging the public to conserve water,” he said, adding that water leakage would not only affect buildings but also lead to the spread of diseases such as dengue fever in the city.
“The ministry should take effective steps to meet the water requirements of people,” he said.
Bukhari emphasized the importance of establishing an underground water storage dam for Jeddah. “We have already made a proposal to set up an underground dam in Wadi Nueman, which is located between Jeddah and Makkah.
“This SR100 million project will help store more than 100 million cubic meters of water,” he explained.
He also referred to a study for carrying out a SR20 billion water bank project designed to meet the Kingdom’s water requirements for the next 21 years. Bukhari, who has participated in preparing the study on the project, said it would be carried out in the southern Tihama region that receives a lot of rainwater and has suitable locations to establish underground dams.
