He added that ministers wanted change in the near future and set out the argument for the introduction of the charges.

“I believe it is one of the most practical policies in order to cut down water consumption in the Kingdom, and it’s about time to restructure the water tariff. And I think this is coming very, very soon,” Al-Musallam told delegates at the Saudi Water and Power Forum on Tuesday.

Al-Musallam said that changes were critical for sustainability in the Kingdom and to ensure the national viability of the water sector.

He noted that consumption was “growing exponentially due to the lack of incentives for the customer to conserve water.”

Consumers’ habits were changing, forcing up consumption levels. “We think tariff introduction is a key policy to conserve water,” he said. He noted that water consumption could grow by as much as 10 percent per year if there was “no proper tariff.”

He noted that the current tariff for water was one of the lowest worldwide and that “it did not help in conserving water”.

Using examples from around the globe, Al-Musallam said that tariff change had reduced water consumption. “There is a strong elasticity of demand as a result of tariff change.”

Hungary, he said, had seen a 50 percent reduction in the use of water as a result of tariff adjustment. Other countries followed suit, with similar results.

“There is no doubt that water tariff change is imminent and it has to be assumed very, very quickly,” Al-Musallam added.

Josef Bofill, Middle East director for water management company Aqualia, used the Spanish experience as a supporting case history. He agreed an introduction of a realistic tariff for water was essential but the key to raising customer awareness was the unflinching enforcement of the charge. “ Non-payment must never be tolerated,” he said, as the consumer had to perceive that water had a real value.

There was, Al-Musallam noted, no single solution to conserving water but a variety of options that formed part of the mix. To help reduce water usage, sales of treated sewage effluent, which he anticipated having a 145 percent growth over the next five years, would generate income and recycle some of the waste water.

Leakage, a major source of nonrevenue water usage, was the subject of an operational audit in six Saudi cities. Loss rates vary from 10 to 25 percent, but in some cities it could be higher.

He said that as new networks were put in, leakages were being repaired and reduced and he hoped that within five years water loss would be as low as five percent.

Putting water scarcity in Saudi Arabia firmly at center stage, professor Walid Abderrahman, managing director of Miahona, a Riyadh-based water management company, said that by 2060 the population of the Kingdom could stand at between 70 million and 90 million.

Water reserves in the Arab region had declined from 4,000 cubic meters per capita in 1950 and are expected to be less than 500 per capita by 2050. Sixty five percent of renewable water comes from outside the region.

In Saudi Arabia, the average water share from renewable resources is about 240 cubic meters per capita, but he expected this to drop by two percent per annum to under 100 by 2060, which he described as “very alarming”.

This, he said, meant that the country is experiencing extreme water scarcity and it will increase in time to an alarming level. By that time, domestic demand will exceed seven billion cubic meters per year.

That meant that within the coming 50 years there would be a gap of four billion cubic meters of water per year between supply and demand if domestic consumption increases as predicted.

Add to that the possible effects of climate change in reducing precipitation and renewing of aquifer water, and the gap may well be another one billion cubic meters per year.

Much sooner than that is the point where the country is no longer self-sufficient in water. In short, the Kingdom would run dry unless very strong measures were taken now.

The two main drivers were increasing water consumption and population growth. Abderrahman agreed with Al-Musallam that exerting greater control would be a “very strong tool, which will control consumption and help in achieving water security.”

He isolated poor water use practices and high water use crops as the main threats to the reserves of groundwater in the Kingdom.

Abderrahman said that measures that should be implemented today to address this scenario included the cessation of poor water use habits, more aggressive water awareness and conservation policies, a fair and enforced water tariff and perhaps an upper ceiling on water use.

He also advocated a greater use of “virtual water” — the importation of water rich foods grown using water from outside the Kingdom.

Infrastructural measures, including capacity building, training and the involvement of the private sector in the development of water supplies were also essential, he said.

The discussion of water shortages and the political hot potato — a realistic charge for water in Saudi Arabia where it is currently subsidized for the retail consumer in excess of 92 percent — is now for the first time in the public arena and up for debate.