Makkah’s Zamzam Well has the best drinking water on the face of the earth. Pilgrims at the Grand Mosque make sure they drink as much as possible and buy containers to take home to friends and family. There is abundant Zamzam water despite huge consumption by Haj and Umrah pilgrims over the years.
The water was a gift from Allah to Prophet Ismail, peace be upon them, when he cried of thirst as his mother Hajar looked for water by running between the hillocks of Safa and Marwa. She did this until Allah, in His graciousness, ensured that water started gushing out from under his feet, and Hajar started moving the sand to protect the water, saying “Zamzam, Zamzam, Zamzam, Zamzam,” according to a report carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
Since then, it has become a tradition to protect the well, to ensure it continues to supply residents, pilgrims and visitors. This is the function today of the project set up by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in the Kadi area in Makkah.
The project provides 5,000 cubic meters of Zamzam water and 200,000 plastic 10-liter containers on a daily basis.
The plant was built at a cost of SR 700 million in Ramadhan 2010 and has 42 distribution points running from its headquarters. As a result, Zamzam water containers are available on a 24-hour basis.
The project’s state-of-the-art system can produce up to 5 million liters of water through a linear filter.
It has a principal storage tank with a capacity of 10 million liters, with four pumps to the Grand Mosque's square through a 200 mm stainless steel line.
The production factory was built on 13,405 square meters and consists of several buildings with air compressors, a warehouse and production lines.
It has 10MW electrical generators and works on the SCAD system, which allows for control and monitoring of all phases of the project including pumping water from the well and packaging.
The project also has a central warehouse with air conditioning and warning and fire systems worth SR 75 million. There are 15 levels of storage and distribution of 1.5 million 10-liter containers. The factory is linked through lines and bridges to ensure easier production and distribution between buildings.
Features of Zamzam
ZamZam water level is around 10.6 feet below the surface. It is the miracle of Allah that when ZamZam was pumped continuously for more than 24 hours with a pumping rate of 8,000 liters per second, water level dropped to almost 44 feet below the surface, BUT WHEN THE PUMPING WAS STOPPED, the level immediately elevated again to 13 feet after 11 minutes.
8,000 liters per second means that
8,000 x 60 = 480,000 liters per minute
480,000 liters per minutes means
that 480,000 x 60 = 28.8 Million liters per hour
And 28.8 Million liters per hour
means that 28,800,000 x 24 = 691.2 Million liters per day
So they pumped 690 Millions liters of ZamZam in 24 hours, but it was re-supplied in 11 minutes only.
There are 2 miracles here, the first that ZamZam was re-filled immediately, & the second is that Allah Holds the extra-ordinarily powerful Aquifer for not throwing extra ZamZam out of the well, otherwise the world will SINK. It is the translation of the word ZamZam, which means Stop !!!!!!!!!!!! Stop !!!!!!!!!!!!!! said by Hajirah Alaih As Salaam. Zimam is an Arabic word, it is the rope / REIN attached to bridle or noseband & it is used / pulled to stop the running animal.
The Saudi Geological Survey has a “Zamzam Studies and Research Centre” which analyses the technical properties of the well in detail. Water levels were monitored by hydrograph, which in more recent times has changed to a digital monitoring system that tracks the water level, electric conductivity, pH, Eh, and temperature.
All of this information is made continuously available via the Internet. Other wells throughout the valley have also been established, some with digital recorders, to monitor the response of the local aquifer system.
The water level is 3.23 m (10.6 ft) below the surface. A pumping test at 8,000 litres per second (280 cu ft/s) for more than a 24 hour period showed a drop in water level from 3.23 m (10.6 ft) below surface to 12.72 m (41.7 ft) and then to 13.39 m (43.9 ft), after which the water level stopped receding. When pumping stopped, the water level recovered to 3.9 m (13 ft) below surface only 11 minutes later. This data shows that the aquifer feeding the well seems to recharge from rock fractures in neighbouring mountains around Mecca. Zamzam water has no colour or smell, but it has a distinct taste, and its pH is 7.9–8.0, indicating that it is alkaline to some extent and is similar to seawater. Minerals Mass concentration as reported by researchers at King Saud University.
Sodium 133 mg/L (4.8×10−6 lb/cu in)
Calcium 96 mg/L (3.5×10−6 lb/cu in)
Magnesium 38.88 mg/L (1.405×10−6 lb/cu in)
Potassium 43.3 mg/L (1.56×10−6 lb/cu in)
Bicarbonate 195.4 mg/L (7.06×10−6 lb/cu in)
Chloride 163.3 mg/L (5.90×10−6 lb/cu in)
Fluoride 0.72 mg/L (2.6×10−8 lb/cu in)
Nitrate 124.8 mg/L (4.51×10−6 lb/cu in)
Sulfate 124.0 mg/L (4.48×10−6 lb/cu in)
Courtesy – Siasat News, India’s Urdu Language Daily
