Of buckets and hoses
engineer muhammad bushehri, undersecretary of the ministry of electricity and water is one of the most active undersecretaries in a country where most of the institutions are drowned in the sea of incompetent undersecretaries and an army of assistants who have taken up their posts just to satisfy those who sought their appointment. kuwait perhaps has the highest number in assistant undersecretaries in the world.
it is said the supreme council for planning sets high policies of the state, and this is true, but most of the plans and policies are made outside it. we say this on the occasion of our preoccupation with the decision of the general secretariat of the council to distribute a number of plastic buckets to a number of houses in the suburb of zahra, in an attempt by the secretariat to promote the use of the buckets to wash the houses and cars instead of using plastic water hoses, especially that the summer is coming and water consumption will reach its peak soon.
the idea is silly, and those who promoted it should be ridiculed. the issue is not about using a bucket or a hose, but about the culture of a society that has been damaged and accustomed to not paying attention to the virtue of consumption.
the cheapest prices, and does not care about accounting for the waste, reluctance, inability or unwillingness of the environment public authority (epa) to apply laws and impose monetary fines on the residents or citizens in the event of waste in consumption. with little firmness, the government can easily reduce the consumption of water and electricity by up to 20% if it desires.
there are countless proposals that can realize this percentage and save one billion dollars a year from the cost of water only, which currently costs the state more than five billion dollars. the proposal to apply the progressive tax on water consumption is at the top of the proposals to reduce consumption. there is nothing more effective than hitting the citizen and the resident in the most painful places, which is his pocket and a majority of the people will be ideal in consuming one of the most important elements in human life.
some people are afraid, but not ashamed. the epa with its broad powers can send its inspectors to residential areas and impose a fi ne of 500 dinars on any excess (waste) in consumption, and everybody will learn a lesson in a few days after the news will spread about the hefty fines and a majority of people will be ideal in their consumption of water.
we cannot forget here the failure of curricula and the culture of society to push for the preservation of scarce natural resources. many visitors to the mosques, for example, do not hesitate to donate large amounts to charity to earn heavenly rewards, but perhaps none of them thought of buying modern taps for the mosque where they pray, which work on sensors and save 80 percent of water consumption, perhaps because this kind of donation has nothing to do with heavenly reward.
