Fifty years ago, when Jeddah’s water came from an old desalination unit known as Al-Kindasa, where people used to go for drinking water, no one ever suffered from thirst. I acknowledge that the population wasn’t as large as it is now, but the country’s capabilities and power then could afford no more than Al-Kindasa.
But what are residents living in Jeddah and all over the Kingdom supposed to do today? The water problem in the country is bigger, more complicated and more involved than all the problems facing us in this time and age. Our country in which wealth and blessings come from oil is threatened with death and destruction because of water shortage.
Despite the seriousness and dangerousness of this problem, despite the difficulty of developing without adequate water supply and despite the impossibility of a real life in the country without solving the problem, we rarely hear of a complete national strategy dedicated to solving it.
The problem has exceeded all bounds, capabilities and abilities of the Ministry of Water and Electricity or the Saline Water Conversion Corporation. The issue is now a matter of life and death. Otherwise, we could consider unemployment or the Qatif Girl much more important than this problem that has been given far less attention and priority than what these marginal problems have received.
Establishing a national company for water — which was recently announced — could be a solution. But the ideal solution for this problem is associated with the life of human beings, the future of this country and the development of society. We need more than a national company for water.
We need strategic planning that deals with the dangerous situation resulting from a lack of natural water sources. This planning should change the locations of the current desalination plants that are vulnerable to long-term security threats.
