RIYADH: New dams will be built to protect and prevent future floods in Jeddah, said Engineer Abdullah Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Hussayen, Minister of Water and Electricity and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC). He made the comments while chairing the 105th meeting of the board of directors of the SWCC at the company's headquarters in Riyadh Wednesday. He pointed out that the water networks in Makkah were not affected by the rain and flash floods, which swept through the holy city over the last few days. “The use of the sewage drains for draining flood water caused some flooding in some areas because these drains are not designed to drain rainwater.” The maintenance teams managed to handle the problem in time, he said. Jeddah's precautionary dam and Assamer Dam played a huge role in storing large quantities of the flood water during the recent heavy downpour, he said, adding that Beesh Dam has stored 200 million cubic meters of water this year.” He said the water was pumped out gradually. He said Al-Marwani Dam and Rabigh Dam stored about 10 million cubic meters of storm water, which saved the region from imminent danger. He said the need to preserve water because of limited underground water “made us import water”. He said the underground water represents 50 percent of the water needs of the ministry. He said the privatization of the SWCC is being considered by the Supreme Economic Council, and will be approved soon. Al-Hussayen attributed the fall in the use of water and electricity to the maintenance and rehabilitation carried out by the ministry. He said there are plans to connect 240 districts in Riyadh with sewage drains. He said the ministry's budget for the new fiscal year is more than SR29 billion, with a large portion earmarked for the ministry's water sectors. He said the ministry spends SR1 billion monthly on its new contracts.. He said there is strong cooperation between the ministry of water and government agencies to provide schools and mosques with water, with special water taps installed to rationalize consumption. The minister said the ministry's partnership with the private sector has yielded effective results including the setting up of desalination plants in Rabigh, Al-Qarya and Dharma' at a cost of SR70 billion. He said the ministry has awarded contracts to build desalination plants at Rass Azzour at a cost of SR16 billion, including a SR6 million desalination plant and SR6 billion power-generating plant, in addition to other vital projects that will help to end the water crisis in most parts of the Kingdom.
