Dear KAUST Community,
Unfortunately, I must continue to ask for your patience with regard to the disruption of our water supply.
Progress has been made on our chilled water system. Hence, cooling in academic buildings, student housing, recreational facilities and other affected units should be returning to normal conditions. Nevertheless, we are still struggling with several student housing buildings.
Although extraordinary efforts have been made by divers and workers to repair the broken intake water pipe, the repair is still not completed and will require more difficult and complex operations. At this stage, I am not in a position to provide a definite timeline for the repair.
After a difficult night where water deliveries to our holding tanks could not be completed, a number of organizations have come forward to help us with delivery of water by trucks. Although the concept is simple, the logistical and mechanical aspects of the process are complex. At the time I am writing this note to you, the process is in place and deliveries of water to our holding tanks are progressing and will continue as long as needed.
We need to refill these tanks sufficiently before we can restore a normal and sustained water supply to the community. I apologize for the inconvenience but this process is likely going to take another day. This is why we decided to suspend most our activities tomorrow and into the weekend.
We have secured and will continue to purchase, even from great distances, supplies of bottled water. They are being distributed and will continue to be distributed.
This is difficult for all of us. My experience has been that university communities are resilient and become stronger through difficult times. I can only encourage you to take advantage of the situation to spend quality time with your families and friends.
President Jean-Lou Chameau
James, the community effort and willingness to help is great to see! If you are interested in volunteering, a small meeting is being held this morning (Oct 30) at 10:30 am in the Discovery Square Multipurpose Room.
As always, a very warm message from you – thank you, Dr Chameau. We are very lucky to have you. I am also extremely grateful to the hard working, and very capable teams, trying to restore services, adding buses… etc… and to the people who have kindly been delivering water to every household.
With appreciation,
Solkem