Business & Money | Wednesday 2 September, 2015 2:18 pm |

NWC, official operator of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Zamzam Water Project, said the project has succeeded in producing 100 million packs of the holy water to meet increasing demand this Hajj season. Preparations started early and production capacity has also been increased.

Eng. Said Misfer Al-Wadi, Director of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Zamzam Water Project, said serving pilgrims is a religious and national duty. He noted that the project provides services around the clock. As a result, NWC made early preparations for this project and raised daily production capacity to cover demand, he said. Operation, maintenance, refining and pumping capacities were also raised. Distribution has been increased as well to cope with the project output. NWC increased the number of customer services staff to guide and direct pilgrims and answer their queries.

Al-Wadi said, “The project falls in line with the directions of our wise leadership to serve Islam and Muslims and provide pilgrims with the holy water in an easy way. We use state-of-the-art mechanisms to ensure the quality and purity of this holy water from the moment of extraction until it reaches the plant and is packed in plastic containers for distribution.”

Eng. Al-Wadi said as part of the early preparations for the Zamzam project, packs containing the holy water for this year’s pilgrimage season would be shipped early to airports in the pilgrims’ respective countries, and the official Hajj delegations would deliver them to pilgrims once they reach home. The packs would be shipped on flights that bring pilgrims to the Kingdom and then return home empty to transport the next batch of pilgrims, otherwise known as unpopulated flights.

The King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Zamzam Water Project will perform the distribution operation in collaboration with the Hajj Ministry, General Authority for Civil Aviation and other related authorities, whether they are contracted with the project or working at the airport.

This process starts with a request from the official Hajj delegation in each country, submitted via the Hajj Ministry’s electronic gate. Each delegation is assigned a certain quantity of packs, one for each pilgrim. This year, the number of packs shipped via unpopulated flights is expected to reach 500,000 and the number distributed in all airports may exceed 1.5 million, including previously shipped packs and accompanied shipments.