Page 297 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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Water Supplies. The Manama Water Supply continued to expand, the demand for
metered connections being almost over-whelming. Revenue amounted to Rs. 4,21,125 (against
Rs. 3,37,956 for 1954) whilst the quantity of water distributed increased by some 30 per cent.
680 new metered connections were made during the year and 336 trickle supplies installed,
bringing the total number of piped consumers up to 4,084. Despite the considerable increase
in consumption no difficulty was experienced in meeting the demand during the summer months
due to the additional sources of supply developed since the previous hot weather and to various
improvements and extensions to the distribution system. The latter included the laying of a
6 in. main from Manama New Garden to Jufair, a 4 in. main in Daly Road, a 3 in. main from the
Public Health Offices to the T.B. Hospital and a 3 in. main through the centre
of Naim Village. In addition an 8 in. main was laid connecting the new zone ‘B’ well,
east of the Women’s Hospital site, to the main distribution system in Shaikh Isa Road.
The laying of this main involved the excavation of over a thousand cubic yards of some of the
hardest rock yet encountered in Manama. Although complaints regarding pressure and
sufficiency of supply were negligible, numerous complaints about heavy water bills during the
hot weather were received and investigated. But only in three out of many hundreds of such
cases were meters found to be over-registering. It is thought that the main reason for the
complaints lay in the fact that this was the first summer for some years when individual con­
sumptions were being accurately recorded. In 1953 and 1954 a high proportion of the meters
were out of service due to serious maintenance troubles and many consumers were being
charged on a basis of average consumption. By the summer of 1955 however, due to improved
materials and repair technique, nearly all meters were back in service and recording correctly,
and bills were rendered for the actual water consumed.

In addition to work on the Manama Water Supply the Department was called upon
to provide water supplies at the villages at Jaw and Askar. The Bahrain Petroleum Company
kindly gave a tapping otT their high level reservoir at J. Dukhan and pipelines, nearly seven
miles in length, were run from there to the east coast. The project was carried out on the orders
of His Highness the Ruler, as a gift from him to the two villages concerned.

Other water supply work attended to during the year was the cleaning out and repair of the
village pool, Ain Abdan on Sitra Island, the construction of a storage tank and washplace at
Jidhafs, improvements to the distribution at Budaya and examination of the village supplies
at Sanabis and Samabad.

Staff. The Department was strengthened by the appointment of Mr. Majid Jishi (B.C.
Eng., Beirut) as Assistant Engineer and by the re-engagement of Mr. A. Z. Malik as Overseer.
Even so, by all recognised standards the executive and supervisory staff remained extremely
small having regard to the considerable volume of work undertaken—establishment charges
amounting to only 3.2 per cent of total expenditure. It was only by great devotion to duty on
the part of the whole staff and by the working of very long hours that the results recorded in
this report were achieved.