THERE are thousands of exposed wells in the country thanks to both government agencies and citizens. The tragic end of Lama, who died after falling into an artesian well in the Tabuk region, made us ponder for a while about the role of these guilty parties. The latest figure in this drama is the official at the Ministry of Water and Electricity who warned people: “There are 130,000 abandoned wells across the Kingdom and, therefore, be careful that your children and others do not become victims like Lama did.” It is essential for us to take urgent steps to put an end to this phenomenon so we do not have a repeat of similar tragedies. We treat this problem as if it is a simple case and not the result of utter negligence and complete disregard for human life, especially the lives of innocent children. These wells, which have become open graves, revive memories of recent tragedies that took place at amusement parks in the country, tragedies that claimed the lives of our sons and daughters. Solutions come only when tragedies are repeated due to negligence. Otherwise, what is the point of keeping such a huge number of abandoned artesian wells without any fencing or warning signs? Even today, there are several similar “graves” in other regions of the Kingdom and it seems that we need another horrific accident or tragedy to wake up and do something. We offer sacrifice for our neglect and disregard and then go back to cry over our losses. And when another victim falls prey to our neglect, we put all the blame on the Civil Defense if it fails to save the victim. We will ask each other: Who shares the responsibility for the state of these wells? Who gives license to dig these wells? Where were the municipality, ministries of agriculture and water and the Civil Defense along with other regulatory bodies? There is no definite answer for this in the absence of transparency.
