RIYADH, 18 July — One of the top priorities for the new Ministry for Water will be to restructure water tariffs after taking into account consumption patterns at various levels, according to Dr. Ali S. Altokhais, deputy minister for water affairs at the Ministry of Agriculture and Water.
The new ministry will have a separate cell to deal with proposals for private sector investments in the production and management of water as well as waste water treatment and sewage disposal, Altokhais told Arab News in an interview yesterday.
The decision to split the Ministry of Agriculture and Water, he said, reflected the government’s concern to increase production and conservation of water to meet growing demand. Water consumption in the country currently stands at 286 liters per head a day.
He said the tariff structure would have to be rationalized as part of the government’s drive to promote conservation of water.
People whose consumption level is low and reasonable will not be affected by the tariffs structuring, Altokhais said, adding: “They are using water wisely and within acceptable limits. However, rates will be raised in the case of bigger consumers.”
The current tariffs, he said, start at 10 halalas (SR 0.10) per cubic meter for the first level (1-50 cubic meters per month). The rates for the subsequent levels are: 15 halalas per cu/m (51-100 cu/m); SR2 cu/m (101-200 cu/m); SR4 cu/m (201-300 cu/m); SR6 cu/m (over 300 cu/m).
Altokhais said the new ministry would encourage private sector investment in the management of municipal water supply, which stands at 4.8 million cubic meters per day. Investment opportunities in water projects are enormous. The sector requires more than SR250 billion in investment by 2020.
Dr. Prajapati Trivedi, resident economist at the World Bank office in Riyadh, said the decision to incorporate water-related agencies of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in the new ministry was commendable. He said the World Bank had recognized the ministry for benchmarking all municipal water utilities.
“For the first time, we know the relative performance of water utilities and how municipal water is being used. The data has also been placed on the Internet,” Trivedi said.
Responsibilities of the new ministry include production of water from desalination plants and ground water sources.
Dr. Riaz Ahmad, head of Water Resources Engineering Division at Ibrahim Abunayyan & Sons Co., said it was a strategic move on the government’s part to create a new water ministry.
Ahmad was involved in drilling what is claimed to be the world’s deepest water well in Rumaiyya, north of Riyadh. The well has a depth of 2,800 meters.
The cost of drilling water wells, he said, has increased by 10 percent recently, with charges varying from SR2,000 to SR2,200 per meter. “At Wasea, in the Central Province, we are digging a water well at a rate of SR3,500 per meter because of the difficult drilling conditions and other factors.”
He said the water situation had improved following restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water on water drilling.
