Customers are skeptical about Zamzam water sold on the street because of its taste, which vendors attribute to the water being improperly stored and exposed to the sun. Salem Al-Ghamdi, a customer, said that whenever he buys Zamzam water from street vendors, its taste always differs. The taste also changes over time, which led him to use Zamzam water bought from street vendors in no more than two to three days. Al-Ghamdi feels perplexed by the ambiguity engulfing the whole process; he said he tried to learn more about the matter, but all available information shows that the taste of Zamzam water never changes. Al-Ghamdi appealed to authorities to tighten their control over the vendors. Doubts about the vendors' Zamzam water led another man to only get it at the original source; he said the taste of that water does not change. Ali, another consumer, said he bought a gallon of what was supposed to be Zamzam water from a vendor on Makkah-Jeddah Expressway, but when he drank it three days later, he discovered that it was nothing but normal drinking water. Vendors said they do not deceive customers and added that they fear Allah. “We trade in blessed water so how can we deceive our customers,” a vendor asked. Suliman Saleh Al-Muhameed, Director of the Control Department at the Ministry of Commerce, said that while it is illegal to sell Zamzam water on the street, most vendors are honest about what they sell because they trade in sacred water. He said officials from his organization and the Jeddah Mayoralty, who confiscate Zamazm water sold by street vendors, have clear instructions from the Makkah Emirate to combat sales of Zamzam water on streets and near gas stations. Because selling Zamzam water on the street is illegal, officials never take samples to check its purity or determine if it really is Zamzam water, he added. __
