Saeed Al-Suraihi Okaz The National Water Company (NWC) has plugged the leakages in its water network. According to its reports, the company has saved 314 million cubic meters of water in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Taif alone. The reports said the value of the saved water was SR1.8 billion. The company has been working to fix the problem for four years. If we did not ask about the quantity of the water which has been wasted until now, or the pipes in other cities and towns, we should at least ask about how much the company has spent plugging the leakages. NWC's reports say a total of 256,000 cases of water leakage were reported in the four cities in the past four years. This number prompts us to question the durability of the company's network of pipes. How is the 314 million cubic meters of water saved being used? Has this quantity helped close the gap between the company's output and the citizens' demands? I do not believe that the citizens of the four cities have felt any improvement in their water supplies as a result of the water saved. Therefore there is no need to spend money in trying to fix the leakage problem. The water shortage has deepened over the past four years. The network of pipes is no longer capable of pumping water while the water trucks are unable to satisfy the needs and requirements of citizens. It is certain that the citizens have not felt any improvement in the water supply as a result of the pipes being fixed. This means there is something seriously wrong with the company, which cannot be resolved by simply treating the symptoms. If not rectified, the citizens' predicament with water shortage will never end.
