Specialist: The strip of life from Taif to the south is considered the largest reserve for storing water in the Kingdom
Dr. Muhammad bin Hamid Al-Ghamdi, a specialist in the water and environmental sector, presented several solutions and proposals to support the idea of converting rain into a strategic stock, to preserve rainwater from waste and loss.
Al-Ghamdi said during a meeting organized by the Asharqia Chamber represented by the Environment Committee on Wednesday 10 March 2021, entitled “How do we turn rain into a strategic reserve” and managed by Chairman of the Committee Talal bin Sultan Al-Rasheed, that the importance of water in the Kingdom comes from scarcity and its importance is no less than oil, which is very important In the economic field, as well as water, which is supposed to be in the first place, but currently it comes in second place in the area of concern.
Al-Ghamdi explained that the underground water comes from rain, indicating that 60 percent of the Kingdom's population lived on a very narrow strip, width of no more than 10 km, extending from Taif to the last point in the southern region, considering this strip to be life due to the availability of water in it.
Al-Ghamdi explained that rain is the only solution before us to exploit it and not desalination projects, and that is through the revival of old systems represented in the establishment of water terraces, which were in the past called "dams", and turning the strip into a reserve to catch, collect and store the largest amount of water, where about (60) can be caught and harvested. 1 billion cubic meters of water annually, and preserving the juniper plant, which helps in the process of storing water, which constitutes about (70) percent of the vegetation cover for this rainy strip. He also called for the elimination of the existing violations that cause the groundwater to dry up, such as digging artesian wells (tube) in that strip, random construction, and tampering with mountains through removal operations.
Al-Ghamdi said that the strip extending from Taif to the south will be a strategic reservoir of water for future generations, and also called for the revival of the heritage skills of all regions of the Kingdom, which are specialized in water conservation and management, as each region has special procedures, skills, and traditional systems, which only need to be revived and work on Maximizing it, pointing out that the water terraces in the water strip work to nourish the springs that exist even in the Al-Ahsa region, due to the nature of the geological formation of the Kingdom.
