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Makkah: Chairman of the United Zamzam Office Suleiman Abu Ghelya has dismissed rumors appearing
on some social networking sites about the genuineness of Zamzam
water distributed to Haj pilgrims.
“The speculation about the genuineness of Zamzam water supplied by
the Zamzam Office is not true and unfortunate,” Arab News quoted
Abu Ghelya as saying.
He attributed the doubts and rumours
spread to ignorance of religious knowledge, because what he said,
"Zamzam is a river in paradise that will never dry up".
Abu Ghelya made this denial when he was asked about the rumors
circulating on social networking sites that ordinary water was
added to Zamzam supplied to pilgrims.
He said his office planned to supply 32 million liters of Zamzam
water to pilgrims in the current Haj season.
Regarding the various services offered by the United Zamzam
Office, Abu Ghelya said it started operations this season with
offering bottles of cooled holy water to pilgrims on the first day
of the current lunar month Dul Qaadah (Sept. 17), Arab News
reported online Monday.
“We take water to pilgrims’ residences in covered trucks, while
our women officials visit hospitalized pilgrims and supply them
with bottles of holy water,” he said.
He added that his office had bought 35,000 bottles of 20-liter
capacity to supply the water to pilgrims at their residences.
The office’s service will continue until the last pilgrim leaves
the holy city.
The Ministry of Haj has ordered the Zamzam office to supply each
pilgrim with a bottle of 300 ml of the holy water at the time of
arrival in Makkah and 1 liter at their residences daily besides
1.5 liter bottles at the pilgrim grouping centers, Al-Madinah
daily reported yesterday.
Regarding the illegal sales of Zamzam by some gangs, he said the
genuine Zamzam bottles carry the warning “not for sale” to ensure
they are not sold for profit.
“However, when we notice some people selling the water illegally,
we report the matter to the departments concerned,” he said.
A major problem faced by his agency is the traffic department’s
stance of not allowing Zamzam trucks to enter the central zone
around the Grand Mosque or stop at pilgrims’ residential
facilities. “We are striving to reach an understanding with the
department to resolve this issue that comes up every year,” he
said.
The official said his office had made a proposal to extend the
Zamzam supply service to Umrah pilgrims. The Ministry of Haj is
currently studying the viability of that proposal.
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