Al-Madinah

SAUDI ARABIA is a country with limited natural water resources. The Kingdom receives only a small amount of rain and there are no permanent sources of water such as rivers or lakes. Therefore, we mainly rely on desalinated water.

The Kingdom produces huge quantity of desalinated water to meet the growing needs of people. It costs the country a huge amount of money in terms of setting up of desalination plants, their operation and maintenance and fuel.

Rationalization of water consumption is both a national and religious duty. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Don’t waste water even if you were at a running stream.” This Saying of the Prophet should have greatly influenced Muslims while consuming water, especially those who live in arid regions. King Abdul Aziz, founder of Saudi Arabia, was very keen on ensuring the comfort of people and did everything possible to meet their needs, especially to make fresh water available in regions with scant sources of ground water such as Jeddah and Makkah. He formed the Aziziyah Water Trust (Al-Ain Al-Aziziyah) as an endowment to cater to the needs of the city's people and supplied water to their residences free of charge for many years.

However, now things have changed tremendously with the expansion of several cities and governorates where the number of inhabitants rose to millions. This necessitated production of huge quantity of desalinated water. At the same time, there has been wastage and excessive use of water. Therefore, it was essential for the authorities to bring down the wastage and excessive consumption by introducing tariffs on water consumption.

The National Water Company (NWC), which has been authorized to fix water tariffs, sometimes hiked tariffs to the level that put a burden on a major section of citizens. On the other hand, another section of people do not have water connections from NWC and have been relying on water delivered by trucks. The price of a 19-ton water truck is SR133. Earlier, the Ministry of Water and Electricity had to bear tens of riyals to make available water to the citizens at nominal rates, thanks to the unflinching support from the government.

The NWC should review its policy of fixing water tariff. The company must modernize the devices for metering water consumption in residential units.

The NWC should take measures to expand the water network to all districts of Jeddah. It is high time that we stop relying on trucks to carry water or sewage.

Water rationalization devices shall be made available to the citizens. There should also be renovation of Al-Ain Al-Aziziyah and the water sources in Khulais to complement the desalination plants to boost water distribution in Jeddah.

Efforts have to be made to encourage the private sector to invest in the water sector by setting up of more desalination plants to meet the growing demand. There should be collaboration between the NWC and the private sector in this regard.