Muscat: Oman’s elected consultative council has decided to summon the chairman of the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) for not taking concrete and practical steps for a contingency plan to cope with the country’s acute water shortage.
More than 12 Omani provinces have been suffering from the water shortage since last week due to technical problems at the Sohar desalinating plant.
An official at Majlis Al Shura said that the PAEW didn’t take the recommendations of the Majlis Al Shura seriously to provide alternative water resources in Oman.
That came after a meeting held in Muscat on Tuesday.
Mohammad Al Busaidi, a shura member, told Gulf News that the Majlis Al Shura was not satisfied with the role of the PAEW amid the continuing water crisis.
Al Busaidi added there was no clear plan from the PAEW to address the crisis.
“The PAEW didn’t take the recommendations of the Majlis Al Shura into account — like a contingency plan in case of any interruption in the water supply”, he said.
He said that there will be coordination in the coming days between the Majlis Al Shura and the PAEW, to set a date for summoning.
One of the plans the Majlis Al Shura recommended was to build wells to provide main water pipelines networks in case of problems at water plants.
Some 250,000 people had their water supply interrupted for more than one week due to technical problems at the Sohar desalination plant last week.
