To help curb rampant electricity and water wastage in Qatar, the government’s national conservation program has produced several short videos reminding people of the country’s difficult past.
The videos, produced by national conservation program Tarsheed, take residents back several decades, to a time when Qatar was a poor, parched desert nation.
In one, it shows a man riding a camel acting quickly to stop his water pouch from dripping water.
The voiceover at the end of the short scene asserts:
“A drop of water was once a matter of life or death for us. Although we have more water today, it doesn’t hold any less value. Let’s save water for now and future generations to come.”
In another brief video posted on Facebook this month, children from the past are seen enjoying a wind tunnel-like breeze.
A similar message about the value of electricity and the importance of conservation for society and its children is shared.
Conservation failure
Qatar has set ambitious targets to cut energy and water usage in the coming years, but the rapidly growing population and government subsidies of the utilities have reaching those goals difficult.
Last fall, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Company (Kahramaa) said it saw a 12 percent rise in demand for power over the past year, which it called a “great and unexpected increase.”
Meanwhile, Qatar continues to be one of the world’s biggest consumers of water – four times as much per capita as many European countries and 10 times more than many others.
Because Kahramaa is unable to increase prices to motivate people to flick off the light switch or the tap, it has relied on appealing to residents’ social consciences through public awareness campaigns run by Tarsheed.
The latest campaign also stresses the importance of conservation from a religious perspective:
Do not waste water, even if you perform your ablution on the banks of an abundantly-flowing river. (Prophet Muhammed) pic.twitter.com/6MTw6itgwd
— ترشيد قطر (@TarsheedQatar) July 24, 2015
How to help
For those looking to curb their own energy and water consumption, Tarsheed offers several tips, including:
- Steaming vegetables instead of boiling them, as steaming only takes a few inches of water instead of a whole pot;
- Buying LED bulbs, which use 80 percent less energy than tungsten bulbs and last longer;
- Taking energy use into account when choosing equipment – for example, portable computers use less energy than desktop models; and
- Turning off electronics at the end of each workday. Idle modes on equipment will still consume #energy when they’re not in use.
What advice would you add? Thoughts?
Don’t make me laugh, they do not care. It’s not the past, it is now. When I asked a Qatari friend what he thought about the high consumption and pollution levels per capita his reply was “we are such a small population we make little impact in the world, it is for the other more populous countries to make changes”
“dont make me laugh, they do not care….when i asked (one qatari)…” so using the “Testimony” of one person to bigot and generalise about an entire country? Combined with an insatiable need to be first and loudest commenter, what does it all mean!? Were you aware that your user name is a fairly common abbreviation for mildly mentally handicapped?
My exact thoughts, you want to cite what the bums you hang out with say as if they are representative of the Qatari population? Smart and sensible Qataris will want to hang out with smart and sensible expats, so of course you end up with the clowns bro.
*deleted for being a burn*
thedrizzle96….what are you on about? stay focused
Yes it is just one statement from one Qatari but the statistics back it up. Qatar has the highest ecological footprint per capita after the UAE
Except that they contradict each other? It’s more likely that the biggest offenders are the ones to make the change. The debate however lies in the rights of the current generation vs. future generations. Industrialised nations, such as the US were able to freely exploit resources to develop at a time when environmental concerns of the future were not as they are today; developing nations now are being forced to consider the future generations in how they develop and expoit, essentially shifting the importance of the rights of future generations over those currently here. Does the rights of a potential future generation take precedence over the rights and needs of those who live today? Further to the contradiction and relationship to this article, personal water and electricity consumption compared to that which is consumed in the production of natural resources is not what puts Qatar so high up on the ecological footprint scale you mention.
If nothing is done today there may be no future generations. Apart from taking the opportunity to bash the US what does it have to do with the lack of water and generating capacity in Qatar?
That’s bashing the US? Interesting. If you go learn more about the global context of this topic and the one being discussed in the thread, you’ll see the integral role that the US plays in the framing globally and domestically and the position that puts developing nations, including Qatar, in.
Arguing with MIMH is like talling sense to a donkey. Aint wirth wasting time on. Just laugh at his childish comments and move on.
I am a Qatari and I say the subsidies should be removed! It will not effect any Qatari families financially, but will cause the Qataris to realize how much water their using and cause them to be more careful.
That makes no sense. Even if the subsidies were removed Qatari households would pay nothing. So, how will they be motivated to use less?
Well they have to internalise the motivation, these ads are probably an attempt at that, Id think businesses would be a greater savings to target though
Why would they pay nothing? Removing the subsidies means they will pay. Not sure you are getting the point of elimination of the subsidies and what that means.
But it is seen as a right now. Difficult politically for the government to remove it
And it would also backfire to all expats out there especially those on the labour camps. Great.
Do the labour camp residents pay the electric and water bills? Dont think that is the case.
Agree. Petrol, water, and electricity subsidies should all be removed.
Yet the industry here beholds sustainable energy a loser. Shell Qatar R&D is looking for a good use of their GTL byproduct of brine solution. When they are presented an idea that it could be used as solar energy harvester in large reservoir structures to produce sustainable energy, they comment that sustainable energy is not a priority in Qatar. I can understand though, they are losing big time as the oil price falls, but still, this negative attitude from a global giant like Shell has a huge impact on the local conservationists.
Don’t get your driver to wash all 5 of your cars every single morning using a hosepipe. That should put a dent in consumption
Agreed. I make the drivers use bottles of Evian, it gives the cars that extra mineral shine.
A video of how water is wasted by all of us, showing how we can all make a difference in such small ways, would perhaps be more effective than showing how life used to be.
Conservation? OMG, check the highest mountain in the country being the stinking dumping ground in Mesaieed.
Highest mountain is still the Dukhan-umm bab one , a natural one :))
I will believe there is a need to conserve water when I see less grass in public areas. That would seem to be an easy win.
“Qatar continues to be one of the world’s biggest consumers of waters” how much of this is for irrigation though? I know the government has a lot of half-baked ideas to grow orchards in the middle of the desert, and seeing as how Qatar has the second or third annual rate of precipitation, they’d need a whole lot of irrigation. I find it very hard to believe that the vast burden of water use and conservation lies with the civilian population.
If the government remove subsidies the real people who will suffer are Expats .. it wont even dent Nationals Budget …
and Again im 100% with Tarsheed regarding the Water Expenditure but lest not forget that around 30~35% of all Qatar Water output is wasted in the infrastructure itself due to (Water leaks , Bursting Pipes , Damaged Pipes leaking into Ground , Etc.. ) its well written and known in Qatar Vision 2030 . they already know that issue .. if these issues are gone a huge Burden will be lifted and it will be even greener for the environment .
To create a habit of conservation Advertisement way only will not be enough…. to drive people…. to open up their eyes… the best thing can be done is Develop/ appointing Energy Conservation Team in offices(atleast in Govt. Funded Companies) and assign them the duty to measure and monitor the energy wastages implementing proper plans.