YOU don't need big efforts to find out the wastage of water and electricity at our mosques across the country. Lights and air-conditioners are turned on several hours before and after the five-time prayers on the instructions of imams who give sermons on extravagance. Everyone is a witness to this wastage every day and people don't speak against these excesses thinking it would be a waste of time and energy. Lights outside some of our mosques glitter like flood lights of stadiums without any need, often affecting sleep of people living in the neighborhood. According to a mosque employee, the imam and the muezzin ask him to turn on air-conditioners one hour before and after prayer. Other workers said they have been given instructions to keep the ACs on between Dhuhr and Asr prayers and between Maghreb and Isha prayers. This way air-conditioners are used nine hours a day at a single mosque while worshippers would not stay more than three hours for all the five times prayers. A mosque official said they were keeping the air-conditioners on to ensure the comfort of worshippers. Where are the advices related to staying patient and bracing difficulties in the way of God to win His pleasure and rewards? Do they think there is nothing wrong in wasting public money? Imams speak against extravagance and wastage of resources while giving Friday sermons. They would say God does not like such people, citing Qur'an and Hadith. The same imams would question mosque workers for not switching on air-conditioners before prayers by one hour. On Fridays they want the ACs to be on from 9 a.m. or from Fajr prayer until the end of Juma prayer. A report issued by the Saudi Electricity Company, which was carried by Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, said mosques consumed 2.35 billion watt/hour in 2013. The power consumption increases every year with the rise in number of mosques across the Kingdom. Rationalization should start from the houses of God. Authorities should ask mosques to reduce power consumption and introduce an effective mechanism to punish those mosques that cross the limit fixed by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in coordination with Saudi Electricity. Many people are unaware of the real cost of electricity, which we receive now at subsidized rate. Government provides oil and gas to Saudi Electricity Company and Saline Water Conversion Corporation that runs desalination plants at reduced rates to produce electricity and water. Mosques also waste a lot of water every day. Some people take long time for ablution and they use water profusely following certain views of jurisprudence. Mosque authorities should provide guidelines to worshippers on how to use precious water carefully without wasting. There are more than 200,000 government buildings in the Kingdom and half of them are mosques. You can imagine how many billions of riyals are wasted by these mosques through excess use of water and electricity every day. The government should introduce an effective system or set up a monitoring office to prevent wastage of energy and water at its buildings. I think that Saudi Electricity Company should fix the maximum limit for use of electricity by each mosque and government building, considering its size and number of people and take action against those who make excessive use of energy and water, crossing limits. Many of these mosques follow old electric systems, which should be modernized to reduce consumption. We should also think of using solar power for mosques and government buildings. We should introduce a system to recycle water used for ablution. Glass barriers must be installed inside mosques to reduce energy use. At present less than a quarter of a mosque's space is used for prayers, except for Juma prayer, and the whole mosque is open for air-conditioning nine hours a day, which is a big wastage. Our imams should take the lead in this campaign to stop excess use of water and electricity.
