JEDDAH: Urgent maintenance issues and the massive number of infrastructure projects going on in the Kingdom's major cities are some of the reasons cited for water shortages over the past two months.
“There are predominately two reasons for the water shortages in Jeddah and Riyadh. The first is a growth in population, which has been increasing in both cities by about 3 percent annually and urgent maintenance procedures at the Saline Water Conversion Corporation's (SWCC) desalination units in these cities, as we work to connect old residences to the new network facilities,” Abdullah Al-Habani, executive director of corporate projects National Water Company, told Arab News.
He said that in response to the reduction in distribution of water, the NWC has been focusing on trying to reduce the impact to customers by adjusting the water distribution schedule and improving operations to the network by building up water pressure.
He added that the combination of severely high temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in Jeddah and 45 degrees Celsius in Riyadh this month in addition to an increase in dust storms has also contributed to an increase in water consumption and shortage.
"To remedy the problem, we have been operating the distribution centers and filling stations at high capacity continuously 24 hours a day and have been coordinating with the SWCC and have received some water from the strategic reservoir as another effort in mitigating the reduction in water production," Al-Habani said.
The executive director further explained that the NWC has been investigating and monitoring the distribution of water and have been sending water tankers free of charge to customers that have not received their weekly water supplies.
"Because we are monitoring the situation closely we are able to tell which homes and districts have not received water.
However, if any customer has found that they have not received a scheduled supply of water, they should call the NWC customer line at 800-441-1110 and make a request," Al-Habani advised.
He also advised consumers to realize the fact that Saudi Arabia has one of the highest water consumption rates in the world with Riyadh's rate being approximately 325 liters per capita per day and that it is imperative the residents do their best to conserve water.
"This rate is way too high considering that the country has very little annual rainfall and very high temperatures. We ask consumers in the Kingdom to not overuse or waste water," he said.
To enforce conservation, he said that the NWC is currently taking photos of residences where water is being openly wasted and applying penalties in the form of fines to violators at SR 200 per violation," Al-Habani warned.
When asked when the problem would completely be resolved, Al- Habani said that it is mainly already under control and with regular distribution schedules expected to return to normal within the next few days.
No discrimination
Despite the efforts of the NWC to make sure water is available to all, some residents unwilling to wait up to 10 to 12 hours to receive a water tanker, have opted to stand in queue at the center and purchase a truck load themselves. However, the limited number of trucks and a two-line queue system being implemented in the distribution center, one line for Saudi nationals and another for expatriate customers, some accusations have been made by expats stating that they were banned from purchasing water and discriminated against. Arab News investigating these claims on various occasions in Jeddah and found no discriminative activity taking place, with both lines moving at an equal pace and prices remaining stable.
“The only way we would not allow expatiate customers to purchase a water tanker or exclude them would be in the case that we feel they are acting suspicious, leading us to believe that he may be intending to sell the water outside the distribution center for a higher price and creating a black market,” a source at the distribution center’s office told Arab News, wishing to remain anonymous.
In fact, yesterday morning, despite the distribution center having no queue of customers, Arab News witnessed several expatriates outside the center flagging down motorists in hopes of selling their truckload of water at black market prices, to no avail.
The source also confirmed that infrastructure projects have contributed to the water shortage.
"The building of bridges and work being done has caused some pipelines to be disturbed with some water distribution being disrupted from the main center across the city to some districts," the source mentioned.
Regular prices of water tankers have remained stable with a large tanker priced at SR 114, medium tanker at SR 66 and small tanker at SR 42.
