The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), which will soon be privatized, is presently considering a study to sell desalinated water to the National Water Company (NWC), Makkah daily reported on Wednesday. A source at the NWC said the SWCC has so far been providing water to the company free of charge. He said the study is almost complete and its details will be announced as soon as it has been finalized. "This has prompted the NWC to install new meters in buildings all over the Kingdom," he said. The source said the company will not install the meters in the internal lines for every individual apartment but will do that on the external lines feeding the entire building. "The landlords can install internal meters to achieve justice among the tenants if they so wish," he said. A number of landlords and real estate investors have started amending the rent contracts to make the tenants pay for their consumption of water by adding an item that will make it obligatory on them to pay their monthly water bills. Many tenants refused to pay the water bills because of the disparity in fees among them. According to the source, a number of building owners have started installing separate water meters for each apartment. Soliman Al-Omran, a contractor, said installing a commercial water meter is not a difficult thing to do. He asked the municipalities to compel the landlords to install separate meters in each apartment in their buildings. "The landlords should not be given licenses to rent their apartments if they refused to install water meters in each unit," he said. Lawyer Omar Aljohani also asked the landlords to set up separate meters for each apartment to avoid conflicts among tenants. He said if the landlords refused to do this, the tenants can install the meters themselves especially as they may not cost more than SR200.
