By Khaled Al-Suleiman
WHEN the water tariff increased, I accepted it due to the determined policy of rationalization that I follow in my house, but the bill this month was unusual and the increase doubled for no apparent reason, because usually water and electricity bills decrease in winter not increase!
This remains a personal topic and might not matter to the reader because he is depressed over his personal bill and does not need my troubles. But what caught my attention is the talk of Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim, CEO of National Water Company, during his participation at the Water Investment Forum held in Riyadh about lifting all government subsidies on water and electricity according to the National Transformation Program. He went on to talk about rationalizing and improving the production, transmission and distribution operations to reduce costs and reach a fair price for water tariffs and quality suitable for the service.
Of course Al-Ibrahim is aware that any reduction in the cost of production and transfer of water will not be equivalent to the current tariff, so his speech is not only to prepare the community for another increase in tariffs. Besides his talk about the idea of involving other parts of the private sector in the production and distribution of water confirms that the liberation of the value of water tariffs is only a matter of time and will increase the cost for subscribers!
Finally, I agree that water consumption is high, and per capita in Saudi Arabia is one of the highest in the world, but also let us recognize that the government sector shares the responsibility of the waste, the percentage of leaks in the network, which is the highest in the world, and the attrition of excessive pumping created by agricultural policy and the era of growing wheat!
