JEDDAH, 4 May 2007 — Thousands of residents of the Prince Abdulmajeed Model Housing Project, commonly known as the Iskan (Arabic for “housing”), in south Jeddah have had to wait over 20 days for their share of pipeline water over the past eight months.
“Twenty-six thousand people live in the Iskan,” said Faeq Awan, a 44-year-old Saudi vice principal of a boys’ public school. “Water used to come every two weeks. Now it only comes once a month. We sometimes wait more than 20 days for pipeline water.”
This Iskan is divided into 10 groups of 20 tenement buildings, each with 24 units: a total of 4,800 apartments. Nearly all of the residents are Saudis with a majority owning the apartments in which they live. Residents here have resorted to collecting money to pay for water trucks to fill their rooftop cisterns when water doesn’t arrive through the public pipelines. Each building consumes the equivalent of three trucks of water a day at SR123 each.
“We are a family of eight and I’m just a simple bus driver,” said Abu Elham, a Saudi father of six in his late forties. “Paying 30 riyals daily may be nothing for others but for someone like me struggling to make ends meet it’s burning a hole in my pocket.”
Others simply refused to pay.
“Why should my wife or I pay when our consumption is nothing since we don’t even have children?” said an Iskan resident who refused to disclose his name.
Adding to residents’ anger is that each apartment is installed with a water meter that bills them not only for the water the city pumps to them but also the water pumped from the trucks they have already paid for.
“Why should I pay twice for my water?” said the Iskan resident.
Abdullah Al-Malki, another resident, started a petition — one of many — complaining about the double charges.
“The residents buy the water tanks themselves and then they get billed for it again through each apartment’s water meter,” he wrote in the petition.
Over 60 Saudis have repeatedly signed and sent different petitions over the past eight months to Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen.
The petitions were written and circulated by various residents such as Awan, Al-Malki and teachers Saeed Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Shihry.
At least one group of 16 residents went to the Makkah Region’s water administration headquarters in Jeddah to protest the Iskan water shortages.
Residents interviewed by Arab News said that Mohammad Al-Baghdadi, the supervisor of Water Administration for the Makkah Province, told them they are only scheduled to get water pumped through the pipelines every 20 days. Furthermore, residents said they were told the situation would get worse next year.
Arab News tried for over a week to get a response from Abdulrahman Al-Mohamadi, the Director General of Water in the Makkah Region, regarding water shortages, pumping schedules and other water-related issues, such as why certain parts of the city have no water shortages.
Al-Sharafiya Housing Project, another Iskan building area in east-central Jeddah, does not have the same water problems as the Prince Abdulmajeed Iskan, even during peak consumption times, such as Ramadan.
“I’ve lived here in Sharafiya Iskan for almost ten years,” said 40-something Mohammad Haider a tenant. “We’ve never gone a day without water. We’ve not missed a drop.”
Meanwhile, back at the Prince Abdulmajeed Model Housing Project, some residents are fed up and want to sell their apartments and move away. Others don’t have this privilege.
“I have lived in this apartment for 14 years,” said Awan, the vice principal. “I’d like to sell the apartment now, but with the water situation who is going to buy the place?”
Abu and Umm Abdulrahman, are an elderly couple in their 60s who consider their Iskan apartment as their retirement home. “From this house to our graves,” said Umm Abdulrahman.
“We live here alone, my wife and myself, along with the housekeeper,” said Abu Abdulrahman. “Both of our adult children are married, employed and live elsewhere.”
“We chose to live here to not burden our children and their lives,” said Umm Abdulrahman. “There is a convenience store and people nearby just in case anything happens. Now with this water situation, if it weren’t for the goodness of neighbors remembering us, what would we do?” she said.
“We are at the mercy of those who don’t fear Allah,” she added. “Tell me: Could the water minister go without water for 20 days?”
