Official Outlines Plan for Zamzam Distribution in Haj

Badea Abu Al-Naja, Arab News

MAKKAH, 8 November 2007 — The Zamzam Office in Makkah has outlined a new distribution plan for the upcoming Haj season, which will see pilgrims being handed gifts of 300ml bottles of the holy water on the first day of Dhul Qa'dah, said Sulaiman Abu Gaila, deputy chairman of the Zamzam Office’s board of directors.

“There are six groups of workers that have been divided to work two shifts to distribute the Zamzam bottles. Each group has to cover two districts of Makkah,” said Abu Gaila, adding that beginning on Dhul Qa'dah 14, some 70,000 cans containing 20 liters of Zamzam would be handed to pilgrims in their apartments in different parts of Makkah.

“This would continue until Dhul Hijja 7. At the end of the Haj, pilgrims would be handed free one-liter bottles of Zamzam,” he added.

“The office will be distributing Zamzam to more than 6,000 buildings around Makkah. Although some of these buildings are located on top of mountains and in spite of it being tiring to reach such areas, we hope to use different vehicles to provide pilgrims with Zamzam water,” he said.

The Zamzam Office this year is also going to use three Zamzam containers — made from materials that do not rust — to transfer Zamzam from Shaib Kudai to the Rusaifa filling station.

“They meet health and safety standards and can each carry 127 tons of water. We’ve also repaired the old Zamzam line and have laid a new line in case of emergencies. These two lines have a combined capacity of filling up as many as 3,400 twenty-liter bottles in one hour,” Abu Gaila said.

According to Abu Gaila, there are several stages that Zamzam has to go through from the moment it is brought from Shaib Kudai and then filled into tanks in the Al-Rusaifa district. “After this the water is filtered in a number of ways, sterilized, bottled and then labeled,” he said.

The project is providing more than a thousand jobs to local youths. Workers are needed to distribute Zamzam among pilgrims, who live in thousands of buildings around the holy city.

“The project not only benefits pilgrims but also our local youths,” said Abu Gaila, highlighting how the Zamzam Office is working toward generating jobs for unemployed Saudis.