|
|
"Sweet Water"
July 4, 2005
Tap water in Dhahran, and possibly most of the Eastern Province, is rich in minerals, unlike the water I grew up with in the San Francisco Bay Area. The homes in the Aramco communities were equipped with a separate kitchen sink faucet that provided "sweet water", water that was lower in minerals, but still considerably higher in minerals than the water in California. Based on what I was told during my years there, the groundwater seems to be the main contributor of these minerals in the sweet water. (The rest of the water comes from the desalination plants, and Saudi Arabia is a heavy user of desalination plants.)
Sweet water thus became precious, and we were frequently reminded of the high amount of minerals in both sweet water and tap water because of how it affected regular tasks like teeth-brushing, hair washing (hair falls out more often), general cleaning, and car washing.
Because our only indoor access to sweet water was the kitchen sink, we began using clean empty milk cartons to store a couple liters of sweet water in our bathrooms for brushing our teeth. We also occasionally used sweet water to wash our car to reduce the amount of residue left on the vehicle exterior, but we would have to be sneaky about it because sweet water is still fairly precious.
But I think the main thing that drew me to sweet water was a side effect - that it was usually cooler in temperature than tap water. Both the sweet and tap water were often warm, or even hot, presumably because of the outdoor temperatures. Throughout all my years there, I almost never had real cold water with the faucet turned to the coldest setting. But it was still water, and it was crucial, especially in a place like Saudi Arabia.
-Gordon Mei
|
|
