Is it possible that one day we will wake up to find police stations flooded with reports of people stealing water from tanks and forcing trucks at gunpoint to change direction and deliver water to certain destinations? Such questions may seem a remote possibility but they nevertheless cannot be ruled out completely given our unrestrained and indisciplined consumption of water. Reading the papers these days you will be shocked by the many crimes that until recently were not even reported because we were ashamed of admitting them openly and publicly. We never thought the day would come when such crimes would find their ways into our society.
Gentlemen, we are facing a serious — no, a very serious — situation. It is indeed saddening to see that water projects costing billions of riyals are largely being used only to irrigate farms and small gardens. Many factories depend on desalinated water in order to produce all kinds of things from milk and juice to paper and cartons; and we are not even mentioning the water wasted on washing cars which is now a very common sight on almost all our streets. Even drivers of ready mix trucks use this water to clean their mixers and then dump the dirty waste water on the street without anyone stopping them.
The reason for such behavior is obvious: cheap water. For example at the water distribution and pumping station in Abha, truckers get a ton of water for SR1 but once outside the station, that same water is sold for SR5 — that is five times what was paid for it. Not only that, consumers have to pay an additional SR5 for each kilometer traveled beyond a distane of five kilometers. Those who get their water through the mains consume hundreds of tons without giving much thought at all to where it comes from or the expense involved in processing it and delivering it. All they have to pay is a few halalas per ton. A person who lives 50 kilometers from the pumping station has to pay SR330 for a 16 ton water tank while another who uses the main pays a mere SR10. This is where the problem lies.
As for commercial and industrial usage, businesses pay a few halalas for what they receive and earn billions of riyals thanks to the fact that desalination stations sell water at nominal prices. Our own national interest should be above everything else. We have no alternative but to reduce consumption and this should come by making people pay commercial prices for water. At the same time we should build more desalination plants to meet the growing demand and also so that we will be able to meet future demands and needs.
