Qatar’s initiative for rational water consumption is significant in that conservation of water and other natural resources is important for the sustainable development of the country.
This initiative is all the more relevant because in Qatar the government has been spending billions of riyals to provide clean drinking water and uninterrupted supply of electricity to its people.
During the recent ‘Arab Water Day’ celebrations, HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada emphasised the need for total co-operation from people of this country to rationalise water consumption.
He said it was the common moral, national and religious responsibility of every citizen and resident to maintain the source of life and to ensure a decent livelihood for the present and future generations.
The minister noted that Qatar, under the wise leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has encouraged and supported the means to reduce the water consumption rates and the steps taken to provide, sustain and maintain water sources.
Al-Sada highlighted the fact that the Arab per capita consumption of water is among the highest in the world.
The slogan adopted by Qatar to mark the Arab Water Day was “We rationalise in water to achieve sustainable development as water is of utmost importance in our lives”.
An initiative was launched by the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) to strengthen the culture of rationalisation of water consumption through the national programme of energy conservation and efficiency in April 2012 under the patronage of HH the Emir.
The five-year initiative called Tarsheed aims to achieve an effective reduction of electricity and water consumption by the country’s residents, both citizens and expatriates.
Through the Tarsheed campaign, the country hopes to reduce the consumption of electricity by 20% and water by 35% over the five year campaign period.
Tarsheed presents a significant opportunity for organisations and individuals to join the national efforts to protect the country’s resources and reduce water and electricity consumption.
Every resident is duty-bound to help the government achieve its targeted goal.
Tarsheed’s message must reach every resident of this country as Qatar is at the doorstep of summer, a period which generally sees very high demand for water and electricity.
Though Qatar is a desert country, its water usage is among the highest in the world on a per capita basis. Similarly, per capita power consumption in Qatar is also very high by global standards.
Over the last one decade, Qatar’s population has grown manifold with the result that there is huge increase in water and power consumption in the country.
While many neighbouring countries are witnessing sporadic shortages of electricity, we have not seen that in Qatar yet because of the government’s visionary approach in investing in utilities.
But round-the-clock availability of electricity and water at subsidised rates is no excuse for misusing these precious resources.
We should realise that new infrastructure to produce water and electricity requires massive investments. Also, maintaining the existing infrastructure to desirable global standards is also expensive.
Every resident of Qatar must support initiatives such as Tarsheed and try to avoid wasteful domestic consumption of electricity and water.