KUWAIT CITY, Oct 17: About 100,000 citizens and expatriates owe the Ministry of Electricity and Water a very huge amount in bills; besides the KD 23,000,000 outstanding debts the government has no hope of recovering, seeing that many expatriates owing these amounts left the country after the Iraqi invasion in 1990, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.

Meanwhile, there are indications the Ministry of Electricity and Water has incurred huge financial losses estimated at KD 15,000,000 over the past eight years, based on the activities of thieves specialized in stealing air and copper lines. The unscrupulous activity is affecting the electricity network, which threatens strategic water reserves in the country.

Some officials on field tour of Umm Al-Aysh revealed the thieves are well organized. Apparently, they have been carrying out the operation since 1994 and stolen huge quantities of materials from the site. The team affirmed that similar theft cases have been reported in Jahra, and noted the materials are too heavy to be carried by only one person.

They discovered the thieves have stolen transformers from secondary power stations under operation, which confirms they work in groups because such equipment requires special instruments to remove, and vehicle ready for transportation at night. The thieves raided 139 units in 2008, 127 units in 2009, and 79 units in 2010.

Meanwhile, due to general instability in the region and the possibility of a military attack on Iran, the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) decided to increase its strategic reserves of water to five billion gallons, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Assistant Undersecretary for Planning and Training Dr Mash’an Al-Otaibi said the ministry is planning to float a tender for desalination of sea and ground water. The daily target would be production of 50 million imperial gallons of water and sources said the current daily consumption rate is 350 million imperial gallons.