Water crisis in Jeddah, Bride of the Red Sea and gateway to the Kingdom, has assumed alarming proportions. Of late, the crisis has aggravated to a point that several people have voiced their anguish and dismay at the shabby treatment meted out to them by the Water Department. In another travesty of justice, women find themselves at the receiving end as they have to intermingle with men at Al-Aziziah water distribution center. Amal Hussain, 50-year-old Saudi housewife felt humiliated after she was asked to stand in the same line with men at the water distribution center. “It's really shocking and humiliating to be asked to stand in the sun with men at the same tube. Our religion and our customs, won't accept us to be in such a situation. It is really shameful that we are having this problem,” said Amal Hussain. The cost of water trucks in the flourishing black market has almost doubled with several drivers demanding SR250-300 per tanker while the real price of the medium tanker is SR115. “I have a house and a wife and children to feed. They need water for cooking, cleaning and other uses. I have to sacrifice some days from my work to bring them water. Those days are not paid and salary is cut. Not only this, I have to pay SR120 for the tanker,” said Mohammed Mansor Ubaid, a security guard working in a private security company. “I'm working in the municipality and I know that many of the tankers are not full,” said Bander Abdul Aal. “Many of the drivers are looking for any possible chance to run away from the customers to sell a tank for SR600 to SR700,” he said. Several people Saudi Gazette spoke to complained of complicity of the employees of the water distribution centers in helping drivers in their evil deeds. Some of the interviewed people said they prefer to pay more instead of waiting for hours in the sun. “I pay SR100 to the people who fill water tankers as bribe just to fill the tanker with extra water,” said Abdul Hameed Saleh, an African driver. “I've been standing here from 8 o'clock and the line did not move an inch” Basheer said. “I had to wait three hours to get the order number and then I was forced to wait under the sun for more than three hours and yet I am still waiting,” an exasperated Basheer said. With no expatriates allowed to stand in line in water distribution center before 11 P.M. elderly and people with failing health are being forced to queue up. “They did not allow my building guard (haris) to stand in the line. I sent my ID card with him to prove that I am old. But they sent the guard back,” said Uousif Al-Hijazi, 75, a retired government employee. The Soqia prepaid card, supposed to help customers avoid waiting to get the tankers in person, has now become useless to many of them. “I bought the card for SR71. But when I called the number written on it nobody answers and if somebody picks up the phone he hangs up immediately,” said Abdul Raheem. According to recent studies, 1.3m cubic meters of water is going to be supplied to Makkah, Jeddah, Taif, and Baha by 2009 to avoid shortage of water in these regions. __
