JEDDAH, 27 May 2007 — More than 50 water purifying centers that did not meet basic purification standards were shut down in the last two weeks, said an official at Jeddah Municipality.
“Out of 250 water stores in Jeddah, we have so far visited 70 in a campaign to ensure them abide by purification standards. Unfortunately, we had to close 55 stores because the water they were selling was not hygienic,” said Mahmoud Kinsarah, head of the licensing and commercial monitoring department at the municipality.
He added that the municipality has signed a SR6 million contract with a specialized company to establish a laboratory to check food and health products as well as drinking water.
The laboratory will give accurate measures of chlorine and bacteria in drinking water, helping the municipality check all of the city’s water sources to ensure they are suitable for human consumption.
Kinsarah said municipality officials would pay weekly visits to all water sources, including purified water stores that are found in almost every district of the city. The municipality has imposed a new SR5,000 fine on water stores that do not abide by water purification standards, he said.
The stores that have been closed are given a chance to clean their water containers and renew their purification systems, said Kinsarah, adding that officials would continue to visit the stores.
He advised the public to be careful when buying water, especially water that tankers bring from contaminated wells on the eastern side of the city.
Ahmad Al-Gadi, a government official, said that he once bought a small water container from a store only to find traces of raw rice inside. “I had to dump all the water and I stopped buying from them,” he said.
Sa’ad Al-Harthi, a high school teacher, said, “I used to buy small containers from water stores until I found the water tasting weird. I knew that the water was not pure enough for human consumption, so I turned to bottled mineral water instead.”
