Water conservation is an important and critical issue in Saudi Arabia. One routinely sees abuse of this precious commodity every day. Cars are washed daily, courtyards are hosed down daily, water is freely left running as dishes are washed and so on. Now I’m not saying that one shouldn’t wash their cars or hose down their courtyards for the dust and sand do collect quickly here. But there are better ways that these tasks can be accomplished while at the same time conserving water.
With conserving water in mind, I put together my own views and thoughts on the various ways one could introduce and initiate water conservation campaigns in the Kingdom:
“Don’t Tell Us TO Conserve Water, SHOW US HOW”
Simple program with consistent message most effective!
Questions which need answer in order to create most effective campaign which identifies and meets objectives:
Who is the target audience? What is sophistication/level of literacy of target audience?
What is preferred medium of client? (newspaper, posters, magazines, commercials/PSA’s, documentary, interviews, through entertainment/celebrities, interactive)
What is target language?
What is client’s budget?
What is way water usage is most abused?
Suggestions:
- Create theme with identifiable character which appears throughout each and every message/medium. (Repetition/reinforcement/branding of target message)
- Would client consider rebates to customers who demonstrate compliance?
- Need to have clear message which identifies problem of not conserving, why conservation is important and how to do so.
- Create an awareness of the need for water conservation among your children. Avoid the purchase of recreational water toys which require a constant stream of water.
- Encourage your employer to promote water conservation at the workplace. Suggest that water conservation be put in the employee orientation manual and training program. (also emphasize how this complies with civic social responsibility CSR)
- Encourage your school system and local government to help develop and promote a water conservation ethic among children and adults. (Ministry of Water can enter into collaborative program with schools and have a contest in which children create posters promoting conservation awareness which in turn are displayed at shopping malls, businesses, etc..)
- Create and widely disseminate press releases on water conservation.
- Create brochure of restrictions and helpful tips which are broadly disseminated.
Ways on reducing use:
-
Repair faucets and leaky toilets.
- Do not leave water running while shaving or brushing teeth.
- Take shorter showers.
- When shampooing, turn off water while lathering hair.
- To conserve water in the kitchen, don’t let faucets run for washing or rinsing. Instead, fill a container with water or use the sink by stoppering the drain. Wash all the vegetables for a meal at the same time. When washing anything, use a brush, washcloth, or your hand to dislodge particles of dirt rather than relying on the force of water to do the job.
- Do not wash cars when water is in short supply. When washing the car, rinse it once, use a bucket of soapy water to wash it, and then give it one more quick rinse.
- Recycle — Never put water down the drain when there may be another use for it such as watering a plant or garden, or cleaning.
- Operate automatic dishwashers and clothes washers only when they are fully loaded or properly set the water level for the size of load you are using.
- When washing dishes by hand, fill one sink or basin with soapy water. Quickly rinse under a slow-moving stream from the faucet.
- Do not use running water to thaw meat or other frozen foods. Defrost food overnight in the refrigerator or by using the defrost setting on your microwave.
- Try to do one thing each day that will result in a savings of water. Don’t worry if the savings is minimal. Every drop counts. And every person can make a difference. So tell your friends, neighbors and co-workers to “Turn it Off” and “Keep it Off”.
In Saudi Arabia a water conservation campaign should not only be directed to the Saudi nationals but also with messages that inform and teach the domestic help such as drivers and housemaids on the need and importance of water conservation.
Filed under: Economy, Saudi Arabia, Saudi culture, Saudi Living
This is so close to my heart! In Australia we have clear set rules a regulations for water conservation. We even have a dob in telephone line for those that don’t respect the rules! I find it so unbelievably selfish when I see people flouting the laws.
The water campaign has gone from simple suggestions and clever jingles to laws with consequences! It seems that people just can’t get their head around the fact that we are running out of water!! Some more suggestions…
1. Shower with a bucket in the shower with you and use that water that collects in the bucket on your garden ( we have a flourishing flower garden now, when other neighbours have dry grass)
2. Hook your washing maching up to a pipe the delivers water directly to your garden (grey water)
3. wash your dishes in a bucket, use this water for your garden or for washing your car. (In Australia it is illegal to now wash your car with anything but a bucket).
4. Instead of washing away leaves (sand) use a blower vac that will do it for you!
In Australia you can replace for free your old shower head for a new water conserving one…. We have been told to limit showers to 4 minutes and all received timers to go in our showers….
We even had a little jingle that encouraged people to shower with their fella!
It’s so very important and hope that soon, the campaigns will be fairly similar accross the world so that we are all conserving water together!
Great post Bedu!
Thanks Aussie Girl!
You gave great advice and suggestions although I don’t think number 4 would work practically in Saudi Arabia. When it is sand storm season the sand is so bad and permeated everywhere that one must use a lot of water of that time to temper it. Otherwise all other suggestions could apply.
I had heard that the Ministry of Water and Power was going to initiate some water conservation campaigns but I have not seen them yet.
You sound like a marketing graduate and a prolonged campaign not just on TV but also students being taught in schools on conserving resources, not just water is also equally important.
The government should also conduct an extensive investigation to repair faulty pipes to reduce the water wastage. Introducing water usage tax to encourage reduction of water usage and other ways to reduce water consumption should be considered.
The ideas you and other commentators had suggested could be presented to the relevant Ministry for implementation.
This is só weird, you’d expect people livng in the middlen of the desert to be extremely aware of the need to use water responsibly!
”Be wise with water” was a slogan which was ingrained into us in grammarschool!
And in the Netherlands you learn to swim at toddler age because every second step can lead you into water!
In my imaginary house (passive and enviromental responsible) I would have a ”dry toilet” and use environment friendly soaps, so washing/bathing-water could be used for the garden.
In Granada the water used for wudu was directed to the gardens afterwards.
I think using a watercloset is insane in the middel of a desert.
And as you are in the middel of a desert, I suggest people should learn to live with that fact and learn to live with sand and dust.
Or move to Jeddah (my choice).
I find the whole idea of stamping out an enormous city in the middel of a vast desert, just because it happens to be Riya, very unwise. I cannot imagine a more unsustainable place for a large city.
What if there ever were to be a logistic problem? The idea alone would freak me out!
Excellent suggestions. I would add:
1. when doing multiple loads of laundry, use the “suds saver” option to collect and reuse water from the initial load–financial incentives for the purchase of models with this feature;
2. water-conserving nozzles can be place on all faucets: shower head, bathroom sinks, kitchen sinks–could be a requirement of all new construction or renovation, financial incentives for retrofitting;
3. low flow toilets–the Canadian/Ontario government provides rebates on the purchase of approved models of these, they could also be required of new construction, or renovation, in the public, commercial and private spheres;
4. flexible shower heads (on a hose) for quicker, easier more direct access to body parts and less random spray of water–same re: requirements and financial incentives;
5. use remaining tea and coffee to water plants (African violets love tea) or add to garden water;
6. showering together–long recommended by Ontario Hydro–for couples (um, how to say this, time of use could become an issue unless self-restraint were applied to limit such activity to utilitarian showers, like pre-work or before a scheduled social event, or to foreplay), and for children (reasonably well-behaved ones for safety reasons, same-sex or very young ones for psycho-social reasons);
7. water-conserving cooking techniques–steam vegetables in layered “baskets” within a pot, use a pressure cooker, or traditional couscous pot, etc.;
8. timed faucets in public restrooms and on public drinking fountains that go on by sensation of movement and off at a set short interval
I agree that marketing techniques, governmental involvement, financial incentives, and education at all levels are important to get the message across and change behaviors. Modelling by hospitals, schools, governmental institutions, and commercial enterprises would both reduce their own consumption, and accustom people to the “new normal” and its desirability.
Nice change of pace topic! Dare I mention other blogs’ comments on excessive water wastage in the name of making wudhu and recommendations for religiously correcting but non-bathroom flooding techniques. No–better not!
Firdaus, Aafke, Chiara,
Thanks for your great comments!
And yes, Chiara, much much water is wasted on the floor during bathroom cleansing; even if it is not making wudhu. I doubt that is something that will ever change. So many times when I am out I will simply “hold it” rather than have to face wet soppy bathroom floors because of cleansing practices followed here.
Thanks American Bedu.
It seems, in my experience, that flooding the bathroom is a country-dependant practice. Moroccan, Algerians, Tunisians, Iranians, no. Libyans, Kuwaitis, and Saudis, yes. Of course my experience is relatively limited, (would never stand up to the rigours of statistical public health research) and I only offer it as a sign of hope for the spread of the dry bathroom floor.
“We even had a little jingle that encouraged people to shower with their fella! …”
I dare say…generally speaking…two (or more) people in a shower together cannot facilitate water conservation for two reasons…
1. Someone is always in the water…and someone is left shivering on the perimeter of the water…showering takes twice as long as partners take turns shifting positions..
2. When two (or more) people are in a shower together…Im thinking water conservation is the last thing on their mind(s).
Just a thought.
You put a lot of thought and effort into this post, and it is such an important subject here in the desert kingdom. When I lived in Arizona and Florida, there were public conservation awareness programs similar to what you have suggested. Both programs placed limits on water usage, at certain hours of the day, watering the lawn or washing the car was to be done only on certain days of the week depending where you lived, etc.
Happy Holidays, Bedu! I wish you and your family good times, good health and all the best in the coming year.
Thinking of you…
kinda ironic you wrote this today… did you happen to hear about the major watermain break on River Road in Montgomery County this morning? CNN is/was covering it live. Talk about a waste of water… they had both MoCo and Fairfax rescue out there (and fortunately, everyone is ok… just some hypothermia).
Thanks for all the comments. Yes; I recall when in the States the emphasis that was also placed on water conservation.
Monica – no….your comment is the first I’m aware of a watermain break in the WDC area.
I just hope that by speaking out on such a topic and knowing there is Saudi readership it helps get more people thinking how important water conservation in a desert state really is.
Excellent post. I installed sprinklers to limit water use and workload on my gardener…he set the hose in one corner and left it running! Of course, that meant all the sand stayed on the leaves, plants were neglected and water wasted. But it meant he could get paid for watering my garden while getting paid to do something else!
A very smart message regarding methods we can use to conserve. What outsiders do not realize is how sandy and dusty it really is here and how much washing and dusting are unfortunately necessary. I learned that because of blowing dust the unhealthy bacteria and pollens (grasses and weeds) are often worse than the green places in the world!
Washing with a bucket is a must. I do all of that now, but had a maid who sprayed everything, overusing water and bringing ants.
Another thing I do is hand wash items in a sinkful instead of a whole laundry load full.
A neighbor had water pouring into the streets after their helper washed the car down.
It isn’t just us – we must provide ways, means and guidance to our workers as well who use up too much water wanting to “do a good job”.
Also, if anyone wants to know how precious water is in KSA, go to Egypt and see the disaster there. I am grateful for the clean water in the Kingdom!
American in Riyadh – you raise a very good point that in spite of Riyadh being in the middle of the desert we do in fact have good and clean water…which we must preserve!
AmericanBedu, mum definitely should join this campaign. She always gives us lectures about water and electricity. She always gets annoyed when any of us leaves his/her room and the light is on, or if we are brushing our teeth while the water is not falling falling falling. Here is a little secret
Whenever my dad is shaving, mum will be keeping an eye on him to make sure that he closes the water when he doesn’t use it. She always tells us that God will punish us if we don’t use water&electricity moderately and wisely. They are blessings from Allah, and thus we must appreciate it.
I so like your mother Khalid!! Please….would love to have her at the blog! (smile)
Hello,
Just looking for some information that you may help me with or help point me in the right direction – I don’t know if this is the best forum either but here goes… I heard that there was an exhibition in Saudi either this year or last (International Recycling and Waste Management Exhibition), and there were some Automated Conservation Water Displays were demonstrated. These I think were used to demonstrate water conservation in schools there. Would you have any information on them or better still pictures of these display?