JEDDAH — With the Shoura Council set to study increasing water tariffs under the Ministry of Water and Electricity (NWC) in the next two weeks, many in the Kingdom are still complaining about higher water bills they have received. The head of the Shoura's committee on water, Ali Al-Tikhis, said that on Monday the committee had discussed high water bills, according to reports in local media. Al-Tikhis said that those receiving higher bills may be using much larger amounts of water, and that they possibly did not care about rationalization in the sector. He said the committee would look to help those who were committed to pay their water bills and were consuming 250 liters per person per day — the acceptable limit — but had still seen increasing bills. He said that bills rising to SR186 a month is acceptable, and that comparisons shouldn't be made to previous rates as they had meant water was provided effectively for free. Many citizens have expressed alarm over what they see as high water bills in the wake of increased water tariffs and sanitation services implemented from Dec. 16. Some landlords are reportedly considering increasing rents in the wake of higher bills, while a large number of people gathered outside the offices of the National Water Company (NWC) to protest against increases in bills. Saudi lawyer, Mohammed Aqeel, said there was a huge jump in his water bill. "The invoice that we received was SR5000, usually it used to be between SR200 to SR250. We contacted the NWC, complained about it. Unfortunately, no one responded for around two weeks," he said. Property manager, Hussein Zakaria, said: "the new tariff has a massive impact on the buildings that are under my management. The tariff increased by 1,000 percent, so if it is not back to the old prices in a few months, we will increase rents." He said he hoped that there would be a return to the old prices or a smaller increase in water rates. Another disgruntled Saudi, Khalid Al-Harbi, said that he used to receive bills for SR60 to SR120, but suddenly received a bill for SR2400. He complained, and after raising the issue with the company, he received a lower bill and paid only SR950.
