JEDDAH: The Consumer Protection Association (CPA) has urged the Ministry of Water and Electricity to suspend the higher water tariffs for households so that an assessment can be made to ensure people are not burdened with bills they cannot pay.

Suleiman Al-Samahi, head of the CPA’s executive board, recently met with Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen to discuss the situation, according to a report in a local publication.

The CPA said that while it called for the temporary suspension, it acknowledged that there was urgent need to rationalize water consumption in the country because of scarce resources. There was also need to raise the price of water to help reduce the country’s budget deficit.

However, the CPA stated the increase by the government was “not based on an accurate analysis of the current situation of beneficiaries.” It has also not been introduced gradually to help people adapt to the rising costs.

It noted that the ministry had released a plan stating that it wanted to reduce water consumption per capita in Saudi Arabia to 83 liters daily, from the current 286 liters, which was a 344 percent reduction. “This is a sharp reduction that consumers need time to adapt to,” the CPA said in the report.

It further stated that the ministry did not explain clearly to consumers that 50 percent of their water bill included the cost for sewage. It said the ministry had made “exaggerated” claims that some consumers would not be affected by the new tariffs.

The CPA claimed that the ministry had not launched sufficient awareness campaigns on how they should rationalize their water use, and how to budget for the new increases. In addition, there was not enough information provided on how consumers had to maintain their water devices and networks.

Commenting on social media posts, the CPA said that there was a possibility that pipelines were not functioning properly or leaking, which was increasing the bills of some people.

The CPA stated that 87 percent of the water resources are consumed by the agricultural sector, while the contribution of agro-products to the country’s Gross Domestic Product was only 1.9 percent in 2014.