http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=87289&d=28&m=9&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Local%20Press
Thursday, 28, September, 2006 (06, Ramadhan, 1427)
No Water in Ramadan?
Dr. Rakan Habib, Al-Madinah
It is the beginning of Ramadan and there is a water shortage in Jeddah.
The problem is a big enough reason for the residents of Jeddah to enlist the
services of an investigative agency to probe the truth of the explanations
given by the Water Department each year. Hearing the same reasons year after
year is as tedious as listening to the same CD repeatedly.
After this continuous suffering for the past 20 years, it is imperative
for people to question two important issues. First, why have the problems at
the desalination plants not been fixed after all these years? Secondly, is it
logical that there is a water shortage at a time when the summer heat has
decreased by seven degrees centigrade and when Saudi holidaymakers have left
the city in large numbers?
In short, the problem that Jeddah suffers from is not a shortage of water
but rather a lack of any logical and rational reason for it. We have very
strong evidence to support this argument. This year, in the midst of the summer
heat, residents were surprised that water was suddenly pumped into their
houses. The reason behind the insufficiency apparently was a problem with the
authority responsible for distributing water.
The public has come to realize that the excuses repeated year after year
to justify a water shortage just do not exist. Therefore, the institution
suddenly started pumping water and restored supplies to households.
Again at the start of the blessed month of Ramadan, we are witnessing
another water shortage. Fundamentally, we can only hold on to one basic fact,
which is that there is a water shortage in Jeddah for no particular reason. If
there was an actual disruption in the supply at the desalination plants, then
logically water would still reach our houses yet in smaller amounts and after
longer intervals. In such a circumstance, water supply would not be completely
stopped for two months.
People are now really worried about water shortages during the month of
Ramadan that happen without any obvious reasons. We had a painful experience
last Ramadan when there was a shortage for more than two weeks. The crisis was
horrible and people had to wait in queues for six hours and more to get a
tanker. Officials in the water authority justified the crisis by stating it
would continue for one week only. However, their statement was merely issued to
calm angry citizens - the problem lasted for two weeks.
The issue of water in Jeddah is a critical one and a supervisory
authority needs to investigate two important points. First, to verify the truth
behind there being a failure at desalination plants. Second, to look for a
solution to fix the problem once and for all. After finishing these two tasks,
another committee must be set up to ensure that these problems do to not recur.
People of Jeddah must be told when this dilemma will come to an end.
++++
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=87279&d=28&m=9&y=2006
Thursday, 28, September, 2006 (06, Ramadhan, 1427)
Women Suffer in Quest for Water
Hassna'a Mokhtar & Somayya Jabarti, Arab News
JEDDAH, 28 September 2006 - Women, some old and barely
standing, others with their children, crowded the six-by-six room at the
Aziziya Water Distribution Center here in the late afternoon on the fifth day
of Ramadan.
Jamming up against a barred glass window, the women
shoved and shouted struggling to reach toward a small circle cut into the glass
through which male employees would pass them their coupons - water coupons.
A middle-aged woman, pregnant in her eighth month,
beads of sweat trickling down the sides and front of her face said: "I've been
standing here since 12 noon. I'm here because my 15-year-old son couldn't get a
coupon even after he waited for more than five hours. I came here in a taxicab.
I'm still empty-handed." Women mostly ranging from lower to middle class filled
up the room with many young girls still in their school uniforms.
"Where is the press?" asked one. "The newspapers should
come - see what's happening and write about it," another woman quickly added.
In almost three hours only five out of 50 women were able to get water coupons.
Out of those five women only two got their water tanks. However, obtaining a
water coupon and matching it to a water tanker still does not guarantee water
for your home.
"Yesterday, I sent my son and he got a coupon and a
water tanker after hours of waiting," Umm Rayan, in her mid-40s, said as she
shifted her toddler to her other hip. "Halfway to our home, the driver forced
my son out of the water truck in the middle of the street and drove off with
our water. That's why I'm here today." Many water truck drivers leave the
center with customers, but ditch them along the way and sell the water on the
black market for up to three or four times the set price. Another customer at
the water center, forty-something Umm Hamad, said that getting water often
involves paying bribes to the drivers.
"If we don't offer the driver of the water truck more
money there's a big possibility our water won't reach our house," she said.
While listening in, a woman in her late 50s spoke up.
"We come in taxicabs alone, stand here alone and go to the truck drivers
alone," she said. "We show him the coupon slip and tell him to follow us."
Another woman added: "Whether the water-tank driver follows us home or not is
something out of our hands." "We count on Allah," she added, pointing upward to
the heavens.
Every time an employee passed by the coupon window, the
crowd's pushing, shouting and pounding on the barred glass would rise, as the
women yelled: "Big tanker! Small tanker! We want water!" The employee grinned,
seemingly amused, appearing indifferent. Supervisors were nowhere to be found
on the premises. The onsite administration building was empty and locked.
Later, Arab News approached the same employee at the
tankers' lot and asked him why the women were not being attended to.
The employee - who initially claimed to be a volunteer
and only grudgingly admitted to being an employee at the center - gave a series
of mixed responses: That the men send their women to fetch water on their
behalf; that there are no coupons to give to women; and that there is no water.
He added that as long as a woman had an ID, Saudi or
non-Saudi, she could get water. In recent weeks, non-Saudis had to return at
night to pick up water. Saudis were being given priority. But yesterday a
60-year-old Pakistani driver was able to get his water coupon and was told to
pick up his water the following day.
As the time passed, more women and children filled the
room while many would come to the entrance, see and hear the sights and sounds,
then turn away. Such women were among the few who could afford to be
discouraged.
"Alhamdulillah - thank God - I'm grateful that I can
afford to eat out on a daily basis and accommodate myself but what about these
poor women?" said Umm Abdullah, a Saudi woman in her early 50s. Her husband is
an airline pilot and is currently outside the Kingdom. "I can't believe what
I'm seeing," she added as she turned away from the women's room.
Umm Mohammad, a Saudi-Nigerian woman in her 30s had
been waiting since 8 a.m. and just received a third water coupon.
"Tanker drivers dodge me and play me between them," she
said. "Every time I go to one to match my coupon to a water tanker they direct
me to another area. I've lost two tankers because of this and have had to go
back to the coupon window and start my waiting all over again."
One woman asked us to help her match her coupon to a
water tanker because she couldn't read.
"Help me," said an elderly woman in her 70s barely able
to walk. "I am a widow and my daughter's a widow - we've no one but God."
We asked her how we could help.
Her answer: "I want water."
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