Women Made to Sit With Water Tanker Drivers
Somayya Jabarti, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 1 October 2006 — In their efforts to end the water crisis, authorities at the Aziziya Water Distribution Center yesterday triggered another problem.
Women — young and old, shrouded in black, most with their faces totally covered — climbed up to seat themselves into the cabs of water tanker trucks alongside the drivers.
“It is either that or the driver will run off with your water,†said a security officer to a twenty-something Saudi woman, who called herself Muna, when she drew back from joining a water tanker driver in the passenger seat. She said her brothers were angry enough because they had already bent the rules in allowing her to come to the Water Distribution Center in a taxicab. With her father dead, Muna’s brothers, some studying and others employed, had full legal guardianship over her, but none had the time to either fetch water or even give her a ride to Aziziya.
The water shortage in Jeddah could not have come at a worse time: right during Ramadan, when people can’t drink during the day and rely most on their home supplies from sunset to sunrise.
The process for getting water tanker trucks to deliver water to homes is an awkward one, subject to abuse (as this article notes), but is also causing a certain amount of chaos in Saudi society as women take on more responsibilities. In doing so, however, they are forced into culturally (or religiously, if that’s how you interpret it) difficult situations in which they must be alone with unrelated men. If nothing else, this ought to get the religious authorities putting pressure on the government to solve the problem.
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October:01:2006 - 10:53
I just discovered your blog as it was mentioned in another blog. I am very impressed and I will continue to visit.
FP
April:08:2008 - 14:22
Gerhard LASCHOBER
Austria, Europa,e-mail:gml@aon.at
Comment for diskussion
Suggestion for drinking water production by using atmospherical humidity and hot-air baloon by applying the “Perpetuum mobile” method
To solve the drinking water problem I developed an innovative method of “sweet” drinking water production and had it patented.
The name of our product “Drinking water production Perpetuum mobile” may seem a bit exaggerated and also not quite technically correct. However, to illustrate its function in hot regions with lack of water, the term is quite accurate.
Here is a brief description of how our product works (producing about 80.000 liters of drinking water a day):
There is a box hanging from a hot-air baloon, in a similar way to the baloon cage, but larger in size. On the upper side of the box are located two buoyant “floating” baloons, which can “transfer” the air released from inside of the baloon by using pressure or temperature mechanics.
All these baloons are located at a specific height. It is just above zero temperature (usually height of 3500 – 4500 meteres above sea level). To reach this height, the baloons are attached to a cable that allows them to reach the specific height, in a nearly upright positon. The baloons are attached and connected to a water condensing device which is located on the ground.
The connecting cable between the baloon and the device contains a tube made of fiber that seals and partially insulates. The shape of the cable is sustained by an inner shell manufactured of a lightweight fibre.
Cold air (about 2° Celsius) runs through the tube from the baloon to the condensing device on the ground. From the device, another tube is run back up into the baloon with air heated by the heat and cold exchange in the condensing device on the ground. The tube with heated air is insulated with a coat protecting it from sun-heat and contact from the “cold” tube.
This principle enables a self-sustaining (autarkic) and practical way of deriving water depending on the size and method of of the operation. This operation is implemented on the physical laws and their recurrence, which are based on regular changes of air density accompanied by the essential temperature changes.
Cold air comming down from the baloon through the tube to the condensing device, cools the condensing surface until the warm air from its surroundings starts to condense. Conversly, the condenser heats up by the exchange of temperature. The heated air that derives, continues to drift on its own (or semi-independently) through the tube up to the baloon box.
The heated air acts as a carrier gas until its cooled down in the baloon box and relocated by the two floating baloons by using pressure. Finally, the heated air is replaced completely by subsequent heated air.
The process of air flow described above can sustain running on its own or semi-independently. Water, derived from the condensation device, can be treated by adding minerals, additives etc. and then consumed.
The first step – a design, up to the patent registration (no.4AA 703/2007/IPC:E03B – the conclusion is positiv), was developed solely by me (as a private person). In the time frame up to the end of April 2008, I would like to research the market and marketing options, clarify the legal patent rights ( or eventually participation on it together with people insterested in it), leading to the final stage of practical implementation of my invention and application for a worldwide patent.
I am hoping to awaken lots of interest to put it into practical use. I am welcoming all comments, reviews and press service from the media (without costs for myself) – anything that can help my invention to succeed! I am looking forward to your response!
Gerhard Laschober