JEDDAH — The Ministry of Water and Electricity will install electric meters in homes soon and is currently working on a program to monitor energy efficiency inside government facilities, according to Minister of Water and Electricity Dr. Abdullah Al-Hussayen. He added these meters have been installed in some business facilities and are being trialed before homes can benefit from this service. During a dialogue session organized on Tuesday by Okaz newspaper, the minister announced that the water crisis Jeddah has been suffering from would end soon. Some contractors had not been performing their duties as they should and this had put the ministry in a tight position due to the increasing number of complaints, the minister said. The ministry will have to bear with some of those contractors for fear that the implementation of some projects would be delayed if the ministry terminates its relationship with them. In response to a question regarding the ministry's role in rationalizing the use of water and electricity, Al-Hussayen admitted that the consumption and waste of water by some sections of the general public have increased. Thirty percent of water gets wasted because people do not use proper water conservation measures, he said. An individual in the Kingdom can consume up to 300 liters a day, double the amount in Europe, he claimed, adding 99 percent of citizens and expatriates do not have any idea how much it costs to produce a cubic meter of water, while 68 percent are unaware there is a water shortage. When asked how long people would suffer from water shortages before the ministry solves the issue, the minister said the problem would end soon, citing Jeddah as an example. The entire water infrastructure of Jeddah has been renovated, while 500,000 cubic meters of water are being treated by desalination stations, he said. Some citizens living in northeast Jeddah complained about water shortages in their neighborhoods, although a project was implemented to solve this problem five years ago. The minister said the contractors should be largely blamed for any failure in the implementation of a certain project. One of the female attendees, a doctor, asked the minister about the nature of cooperation between the ministry and other research centers to end the water crisis within the next 15 years. Al-Hussayen said the ministry is dedicating its full attention to reducing the costs of desalination, adding that it is also working on forging cooperation with other centers to deal with the water crisis. “The issue of water resources development should receive our full priority. Besides, water security should be at the top of our priority list.” Many experts said this problem could be solved through the rationalization of water consumption and the development of these resources, he said. Al-Hussayen dismissed reports that claimed the ministry was planning to increase electricity rates to reduce power consumption and encourage the general public to be more energy efficient. He added that although increasing rates might be an effective method to reduce consumption, the ministry does not have plans to raise rates. The ministry has many plans to educate the general public about energy efficiency, he said, adding this would be carried out through school curricula, films for children and other methods. The minister called for reducing consumption of groundwater for agricultural purposes. He said wheat and fodder farms consume 90 percent of groundwater, adding that the ministry is working on a plan to stop cultivation of fodder. As for palm tree irrigation, which consumes a lot of water, the ministry urges farmers to use water rationalization measures to reduce consumption.
