The Ministry of Water and Electricity has launched wide variety of programs as part of its national awareness campaign aimed at rationalization of water consumption and introducing the features of the new water and sewage tariffs. The ministry has set up billboards in public places and along roads and highways across the Kingdom as part of a three-week campaign titled "You decide: Lowest bill or highest bill." The ministry also prepared several short films to be watched on YouTube. These films make consumers aware of the advantages of rationalizing water consumption and ways to address the lingering problem of water leakage. It explains the new tariff and mode of calculating it for each segment of consumers. The films also make people aware of the best models and practices available in the world with regard to rationalization of water consumption, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The short films can be viewed at www.youtube.com/user/TarsheedMOWE. During the campaign, which started this week, efforts are being made to make people familiar with the current and future position of water sources in the Kingdom, significance of its prudent use and preservation through practical steps, and encouraging the public to install tools for rational use and prevent wastage of water in all households. The ministry stated that new water tariffs represent only 35 percent of the actual cost of production of water. The new tariffs also aim to encourage consumers to install water rationalization tools so as to save more than 40 percent of water and thus bringing down water bills. As part of the campaign, the ministry urged owners of residential buildings consisting of more than one housing units to contact the National Water Company (NWC) and report the exact number of housing units in each building. This will enable NWC to fix separate water tariffs for each housing unit, which would be much cheaper as compared to the tariff for the entire building. The ministry cited an example to clarify this. "The monthly water and sewage tariffs for a building that uses 90 cubic meters is SR452. However, if there are two housing units in the same building, tariffs for each unit using 45 cubic meters is only SR92.25, and accordingly the total bill for the building would be SR184.50," the ministry said.
