DAMMAM, 9 March 2007 — A top official in the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), the largest water desalination facility in the Kingdom, has stressed the need for intense awareness campaigns concerning the careful and economic use of water. The level of water consumption in the Kingdom is reportedly one of the highest in the world.
While opening an exhibition at Al-Shaqiq Plant in the Eastern Province on the rational use of water and energy, SWCC Gov. Fohaid Al-Sharif said, “The economic use of water and energy is within the power of every consumer. It does not require vast economic potential or advanced technical know-how. Therefore efforts to spread awareness of sensible and economic water consumption by exhibitions at schools, mosques and clubs are vital.” The exhibition has been organized with the cooperation of various government and private agencies in the region.
Fohaid said that water in the Kingdom, where much of the land is desert with scant natural water resources, is precious. The people in the country have no other choice but to depend on expensive desalinated-sea water. Therefore we should give additional emphasis to the economic use of water and make the public very aware of its necessity.
Another speaker, Musa Maabar, director of the Al-Shaqiq plant, said the economic use of water is not just a regional problem but a looming international one as sources of water could become a reason for future wars.
It is because the natural supply of potable water is rapidly depleting while the demand for it is increasing. He also pointed out that more than one fifth of the world’s population is deprived of potable water.
“While countries which are rich in water-resources are striving hard to preserve their water resources, countries such as the Kingdom, which is listed among the 10 countries with the least water resources, should try their best to preserve their precious supply of water. Water should be the first concern of every one in this country.”
He pointed out with alarm that 68 percent of the general public in the Kingdom are unaware that the country has a shortage of water, a fact revealed by a recent study conducted by the Ministry of Water and Electricity.
The study also showed that 99 percent of the people did not know the cost of the desalinated water they use while 82 percent of the people did not follow any measure to economize their water consumption.
It is, under the circumstances, the ministry’s responsibility to undertake awareness campaigns on the proper and economic use of water and to supply devices for that purpose, he said.
