Fearing floods, Oman residents hoard water

Muscat: Residents started hoarding drinking water fearing floods as cyclone Phet approaches.

Water companies sweated it out to cope with heavy demand for mineral water.

“We have worked round-the-clock and whole night to keep supplying bottled waters in all sizes since Wednesday evening,” Vijay Chopra, Deputy General Manager for national Mineral Water Company, told Gulf News.

He said they had supplied nearly 200 per cent more water in the last 16 hours. “We are sending containers after containers to hypermarkets as well as organizations, right up to east coast,” he said.

During the 2007 tropical cyclone – Gonu – residents were caught off guard when flooding caused by heavy rains disrupted water supply for over a week.

“There’s no shortage of water but people don’t want to take a chance, they are being cautious,” said fatigued Chopra, who said that he was camping in the factory for next two days to make sure that supplies are smooth.