In a vignette that neatly summed up the use of water in the Kingdom, I observed a man with a 20-liter bucket of water thoroughly wash three cars. He had arrived on the scene, paid to do so each day, on his trusty pedal cycle carrying his brimming bucket. Less than ten meters away, a fellow countryman hosed down an already immaculate granite covered courtyard for the second time that day. It was he informed me a daily ritual. Water poured out of the mansion's gate and streamed along the road to be wasted. The car-washer valued his water, husbanded it and used the minimum amount to the maximum effect. He had to carry it with him; it took effort and he had by his effort, had invested in it. It had a real cost to him and therefore a real value. When it was gone, so was his business until the next refill. The wielder of the hosepipe simply turned on the tap, had no idea what the water cost and cared less. It had no perceived value to him. There is I would suggest, no such thing as “waste” water, most especially in a desert. Yet the mains pipe network in the Kingdom leaks prodigiously — estimates vary as to exactly how much, but they hover around the 30 percent plus and in some urban area reach much higher. That source of waste is being actively addressed. Not so much, however, the gray water and sewage waste that daily disappears into the Red Sea, land surface, municipal gardens and some to agriculture. It is high time — given the financial asymmetry of producing potable water, (one could sell the fuel oil at a greater profit than the zero profit made on the sale of water) and the burgeoning population — that industrial and urban water reuse should be considered along with desalination as options for water supply in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Ministry for Water and Electricity (MoWE) has estimated that an investment of $53 billion will be required for water desalination projects over the next 15 years or so. The imperatives of declining fossil resources (aquifers), the needs to mitigate GHG emissions, and the increasing number of people in the Kingdom demand it. Education as to the value of water and its scarcity are a good but very long-term step to imbue the population with a sense of value. Initiatives from the MoWE — such as the “brick in the lavatory cistern” come and go with limited effect. The most effective by far is money. If the consumer does not value water, he values the riyal in his pocket. This does not mean just the retail end-user having his patio washed twice daily. Case studies from Harvard University's Belfer Center (“The case for cross-Sectoral Water Reuse in Saudi Arabia: Bringing Energy into the Water Equation.” Dubai Initiative Policy Brief) suggest that the implementation of water conservation, reuse and recovery measures in the natural gas and crude oil sectors alone have the potential to conserve up to 222 million cubic meters of water annually (29 percent of the total Saudi Arabian industrial water demand in 2009). Data from the national oil company Saudi Aramco indicated that an existing natural gas plant could reduce its annual water withdrawals of 1.98 million cubic meters by almost 45 percent through the implementation of water conservation, reuse and recovery mechanisms. Similar measures across Saudi Arabia's natural gas sector could result in the conservation of over 23 million cubic meters of water while also saving massive amounts of energy. Extrapolating from this model across the Saudi oil and gas industry, the combined water savings across the oil and natural gas sectors due to the institution of water recycling, reuse and conservation measures were estimated at up to 222 million cubic meters annually, or 29 percent of total industrial water withdrawals. In the municipal sector, increasing secondary wastewater treatment and reuse resulted in substantial cost and energy savings for six inland cities, while an estimated 26 percent of urban water needs could be met by treated wastewater. These measure it seems could relieve the burden on desalination plants and ease the financial pressure on investment. The study conclude that “only 65 percent of the wastewater generated in the Arabian Peninsula is treated at present, and increases in both urban populations and wastewater volumes have resulted in overloaded treatment plants and highly variable, often ineffective treatment. At least 35% of the total wastewater produced is discharged in the untreated form and most likely used in crop irrigation by urban and peri-urban farmers.” The retail consumer though also has to be a target for conserving water. A realistic charge for use and an intensive education program on the use of recycled water combined is a must. If water has no perceived value, then there is consequently no imperative to conserve it. The idea of charging for retail water has journeyed across the sea of public debate in the Kingdom several times over the past decade, and always sunk without trace. No one seems to want to grasp the nettles of introducing a charge, enforcing collection and installing and reading the meters that would be essential to ensure fair charges. Learned contributors at water conferences agree that block pricing would be the fairest option to charge users. It works like this: the first block of few cubic meters/month necessary for hygiene and sustaining life — free or heavily subsidized. The next block of a few meters — charged at a profit. In effect, if you want to hose down you patio twice a day, you pay for the privilege. The third block of water would attract a very high charge — that would simply be using water as a luxury and attract luxury prices. The question is: would it work. A case in point in Eastern Europe some years ago returned a definitive “Yes.” When block charging was introduced, water use fell by 50 percent in a few months. Groundwater is a finite resource; it is being extracted at over ten times it extraction rate. Recycling and reuse of “previously used” water is a necessary development. You reuse it, or lose it.
