JEDDAH — The National Water Company (NWC) has started making preparations for this year's Haj in September in order to meet water requirements of the millions of pilgrims who come for the annual gathering. "We'll mobilize all our human and material resources in the service of the Guests of God," said Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim, governor of Saline Water Conversion Corporation and CEO of NWC. Speaking to reporters after meeting the company's Haj executive committee, he emphasized NWC's plan to expand its water and sewage networks in the Makkah region, especially in the holy city. Al-Ibrahim said NWC has taken measures to ensure correct water billing. "The meter reading will be done twice and a picture of the reading will be taken to ensure quality service." He said the second reading would be conducted if the monthly reading's figure was found 50 percent more than the previous month's reading. "Our objective is to provide correct bills to customers," he said. The NWC has received 190,000 applications to correct units during the past months at the rate of 400 per day. Al-Ibrahim, meanwhile, inspected the newly constructed water storage tanks in Shuhda area of Makkah to strengthen water supply during Haj and Umrah. "There are four tanks each with a capacity of 140,000 cubic meters each. They will have a total capacity of 560,000 cubic meters," said Abdullah Bin Ahmed Hasanain, manager of the business unit in Makkah. The CEO also inspected the four new water storage tanks in Muaisem, Mina, which will have a total capacity of 760,000 cubic meters. "NWC recently completed construction works to link two tanks with a total capacity of 380,000 cubic meters with the SWCC's networks," Hasanain said. The SWCC supplies 590,000 cubic meters of water daily to Makkah from its desalination plants in Shuaiba and 2,000 cubic meters from Wadi Malikan wells.
