Saudi Gazette report

DAMMAM — A water crisis that affected thousands of homes in the Eastern Province has ended, Al-Hayat daily reported.



The crisis started a week ago and many homes were suffering from water shortages following some problems at the nearby Jubail desalination plant that the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) recently fixed.



A new water desalination project will be built in the EP and will supply the entire province with enough quantities of water.



Currently, 950,000 cubic meters of water are pumped daily to the city through two desalination stations, one in Jubail and the other in Al-Khobar.



SWCC emergency teams fixed all technical problems and water started pumping on Tuesday.



Marzouq Al-Eneizi, director of the Water Department, said water was gradually pumped to the city and the department ensured that it would reach first the homes most affected by the crisis.



SWCC branch director Salih Al-Zahrani said some of the technical problems occurred Saturday and the main station in Jubail was greatly affected because the electric transformers stopped working.



He said: “We dispatched the technical team to the site immediately and dealt with the problems on the spot.



“However, one of the main valves leaked and the team had to get rid of a lot of water in order to fix this problem. It took the team 48 hours.”



He stressed that the SWCC emergency teams are highly qualified and have been working in this field for over 40 years.



When the Jubail plant stopped working, SWCC pumped water from the Al-Khobar station to Dammam.



The Jubail station can now pump 21,000 cubic meters an hour as was the case before.