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Night of flood for Rams area residents in RAK

Ras Al Khaimah - Authorities say breakdown of major water pipeline fixed in a few hours, water supply not affected.

A major leak in the main water pipeline of Rams area flooded a major road in the emirate on Saturday night.
The residents were shocked to find 'big pond' formed over a distance of 1.5kilometres on the road between the Rams area and Etihad square, which inundated ground floors of some nearby houses.
Saeed Rashid, a resident of the Rams area, said all of a sudden the main road at the Rams area turned into a big pond of water.
"There was a major breakdown in the main water pipe here."
Sulaiman Radi, another resident, said he was surprised to find water leaking into his house.
"I discovered that the road was filled with water from a nearby water pipe which was massively leaking."
Resident Ismail Abdullah said they immediately alerted the bodies concerned about the water leak. "Emergency teams rushed to the site and started fixing the problem."
Mohammed Khalil Al Shamsi, Director of Corporate Communications of the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (Fewa), told Khaleej Times on Sunday morning that the problem was fixed in just a few hours.
"Fewa instantly took action, sucked out the accumulated water with the tankers of the department of public services and started to fix the problem."
The glitch turned out to be a leak in the main water pipeline that connects the water desalination station at the Ghalila area and the main distribution station at the Barirat area that a major road at the Rams area was flooded, he added.
"Fewa also started pumping large amounts of water from other sources into the main distribution station to prevent any lack of water supply to the hit areas."
Mohammed Saleh, Director-General of Fewa, said a leakage was detected in the main water pipeline that connects the water desalination station at the Ghalila area with the water distribution station at the Barirat area late at night.
"The emergency and technician teams rushed to the site and fixed the problem in the pipeline ,which is 1,000mm in diameter, whereas other teams pumped out the leaked water in coordination with the Department of Public Works and services here."
The breakdown was exactly close to the Rams reservoir, he added.
"No water shortage was reported due to the leakage as we immediately pumped in large amounts of water up to 15 million gallons into the main water station to keep the service uninterrupted."
All the residents of the emirate will not be affected by the breakdown as the thorough water network of Fewa has been set to supply water from a variety of sources in such emergency case to avoid any water cut or shortage, he underlined.
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com