Alert: Why UAE residents' water and electricity bill may surge soon

Water and electricity bills of some consumers in the UAE are set to surge in the coming months, especially if they do not take the necessary steps to conserve energy and rationalise consumption.

The UAE’s Federal Electricity and Water Authority (Fewa), which caters to consumers in the Northern Emirates of Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Qwain, has announced its new campaign for the conservation of water and electricity.

As per the plan, which focuses on the conservation of resources, Fewa will be re-examining current tariffs to encourage optimal energy consumption, the utility firm announced.

Officials at Fewa confirmed that such changes will lead to an increase of between 14 and 17 per cent for residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors, with the exclusion of any increase in housing used by citizens.

Fewa asserts that the changes will not impact regular users in any significant way, especially those who already apply common conservation practices.

“We are met today by a real dilemma due to enormous consumption of water and electricity resources, to well beyond multiples of global consumption rates,” said Mohammed Saleh, Director General of Fewa. “The problem is compounded with the upward trend of consumption, which necessitated an urgent halt of this bleeding of resources and the maintaining of energy security in our beloved country.”

According to Fewa, the measures are designed to curb the unprecedented and indiscriminate consumption of water and electricity, whereby the local consumption, on average, exceeded its international counterparts by leagues.

In the UAE, the average individual consumption of electricity is 20 to 30kWh, double the global average of 7-15kWh. On the other hand, average individual consumption of water internationally is between 170 and 300 litres a day, while per capita consumption in the UAE is 550 litres per day.

“We have a strategic plan for the next three years, 2014-16, allowing control over the case of indiscriminate consumption, as embedded into the three main axes: instilling a culture of conservation in various categories within the community, especially students and mothers; the signing of memoranda of understanding with government agencies to implement best practices in low cost facilities; reconsidering the current tariff for electricity and water services,” said Saleh.

Fewa will launch a wider conservation campaign, which while work on targeting students, seeing as how they are the future and the generation that will have the biggest impact on the continuity of resource conservation, an issue they can understand to be a life and death concern, in addition to targeting house wives, as leaders of the home, in making them aware of best practices and establishing them as the cornerstone for conservation awareness in the home.

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