Tariq A. Al-Maeena Occasionally we all receive one item or the other that appears to be a public service email in the interest of our safety or welfare. This is usually forwarded to us by near and dear ones. And more often than not, we do the same. We immediately forward such emails to those contacts in our address book whom we wish to alert. Recently I received such an email. It concerned the various brands of drinking water in the Kingdom and listed their bottling procedures. Titled “Very important to read the attached warning, it's for your life saving,” it drew my attention. The email attachment contained a notification from one of Yanbu's leading companies to all their personnel. It was written in Arabic and included the English translation alongside, and the circular was signed by the company's administration manager. The text began with an alert and then the following: “We would like to inform you about the worst water in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A warning from Saudi Aramco against drinking Brand X water. Only two days ago, a number of people died in Riyadh due to drinking Brand X water and found after analyzing one of the bodies in the Central Riyadh Hospital that the cause of death was poisoning by the water.” The circular went on to list the names of nine bottled water suppliers that were to be avoided. It added: “All water in the list reiterates three times and the rest of the water done by Lab ands not desalination water. This statistical analysis was done by laboratory analysis of Saudi Aramco.” It also suggested that the reason for the popularity of the brands on the suspect list was because of their lower price when compared to other brands. And then it promoted the names of two locally produced bottled waters as alternates for consumption, referring to one (Brand A) as “reiterates 10 times and supported by the Royal Court for 25 years and for Aramco since 13 years.” The English translation of the original letter in Arabic was fairly poor, to say the least. This email was very specific though and did include the right buzz words. Aramco is a respected Saudi institution. The Royal Court? Well, who could argue with that? To complement the legitimacy of the circular, the list of brands of bottled water to avoid was detailed. The circular was also printed and signed on an official letterhead of a reputable company, making it indeed a credible looking document. As one of the brands to avoid was bottled in a plant whose marketing executive is a friend of mine, I forwarded him the email for verification. This was his response: “I feel it's my duty to send you a reply to clarify this issue that circulates every once in a while. With reference to your email to me yesterday, it's unfortunate that this is not the first time we have seen this type of unfair and unsubstantiated rumor mongering. The same was circulated last year, and when we investigated the source of the story, which was supposedly Saudi Aramco, there was no such incident. “While we cannot comment on any other water company or supplier, I can only assure you of our product. All of our products including Aquafina water are produced to the highest and strictest standards of PepsiCo and at the same time conform to Saudi standards. We have constant monitoring (internal and third party) on the entire chain: from production, to warehousing, to distribution, to the final location which is the trade outlet, where the consumer buys and consumes our product. “We invite you or whoever you choose at any time even without any notice to visit our facilities to check and see how we operate and produce the finest quality of water where the SASO (Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization) logo is printed on the Aquafina label. Please find enclosed the documents and certificates on quality:
* AIBI food safety inspection certificate * Letter of guarantee with Aquafina specification * SASO test report * ISO 22000 certificate
“And lastly, a response on SABQ website by the company whose letterhead was used denying the issuance of the memo. (http://sabq.org/Kqvfde) Hope this puts your mind at ease. I would highly appreciate it if you could also forward my reply to the good people of Jeddah and beyond. While we will never be able to stop evil people from writing unsubstantiated information about anything they choose, it's our duty as responsible business people and honest and fair media to make things right. Best regards, Ahmed El Mehelmy” Ahmed probably covered it all in a nutshell. As social media proliferates in this country, so do instances of malicious emails or tweets against companies or individuals. Whether the work of competitors or disgruntled employees, these are campaigns run by cowards as they do not disclose the true identity of the author. We, the public, must be vigilant against such phony messages. In the absence of a local facts verification website, such as snopes.com, caution must be the order of the day.
— The author can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena.
