Water crisis in Taif will come to an end at the beginning of next year, Abdullah Al-Hussayen, Minister of Water and Electricity, has said. The water supply will be smooth with the opening of a new pipeline that will increase the supply of water to 280,000 cubic meters per day, he said. Current supplies rely on a single pipeline opened 30 years ago, Al-Hussayen said, but added that this year's summer will experience no water cuts. The minister, commenting during the second week of water shortages in Taif, blamed water truck providers for price rises and assured the public of the safety of water, saying that water companies were certified and monitored by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and other health authorities. Meanwhile, the executive head of the National Water Company (NWC) Lu'ay Bin Ahmed Al-Musallum has said that a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding have been signed with both public and private sector organizations to improve water services, noting that a number of NWC offices would be opened in Riyadh and one office in Jeddah. The agreements signed were worth, according to Al-Musallum, just under SR113 million. Al-Musallum said that the water company had certified a Jeddah plan for the summer period through the development of the water distribution network and a more frequent supply of water to districts. Jeddah will see extra supplies of water of up to 180,000 cubic meters per day pumped from the Al-Shu'aiba 3 station and 10,000 cubic meters from Wadi Khuleis, Al-Musallum said. The distribution system will also undergo improvements with the introduction of 75 flow gauges and 200 pressures gauges all connected up to the central operations room. Improvements to management efficiency and maintenance to address leaks will be conducted through the division of Jeddah into 51 distribution districts with four districts having undergone complete maintenance by the end of July this year. Al-Musallum made his comments during a speech at the inauguration of the National Water Company headquarters on King Fahd Highway in Riyadh on Saturday.
