Rashid Initiative
Rashid Initiative is a community initiative launched by the National Water Company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was launched on October 16, 2019, with the support of the National Program for Water Conservation to inspect a thousand properties with high consumption of water.
The initiative started with visits paid to certain properties where the defects causing water leaks in the customers' houses are detected and fixed, and approved rationalization tools are installed free of charge so as to monitor the consumption of water
Objectives of Rashid Initiative
Rashid Initiative seeks to foster community participation in knowing the methods and means for conserving water resources in their homes. It also aims at raising their awareness of the necessity to ensure a constant inspection of properties, determining the volume of financial revenues, and identifying the quantity of water saved due to decreasing water consumption, as well as promoting the culture of rationalization and becoming aware of its environmental and financial impacts.
Outcomes of Rashid Initiative
Through work and analysis of the initiative's findings concluded from inspecting a thousand properties, the Rashid Initiative revealed that 93 percent of the cases with abrupt high water consumption bills are caused by internal home leaks.
The location of leaks were various in the inspected houses, where 79 percent of the leaks were from the underground tank float switch, 70 percent from cracks in the underground tank filler neck, 65 percent from siphons, 60 percent from the connection between the meter and the underground tank, 45 percent from the insulation element at the top of filler neck of the tank, 24 percent from the above ground tank float switch, 8.3 percent from downpipes, and 6 percent from the underground tank insulation.
According to the initiative's findings, repairing and preventing leaks inside homes can reduce costs by roughly 28 percent of the bill.
Addressing leakages in the Rashid Initiative
Consequent to the initiative handling of water leaks and the cooperation of homeowners and tenants, water consumption has been rationalized by 46 percent. Household consumption before the initiative was estimated at 4,587 l per day but decreased to 2,483 l per day after the initiative. As for individual consumption, it was 458 l per day before the initiative, and after it, it decreased to 262 l per day.
'Father Says' campaign launch
On February 18, 2024, the National Water Company launched its awareness campaign entitled 'Father Says' to raise the public's awareness of the importance of ensuring a constant inspection of properties to identify the locations of water leakages, where the campaign reiterated the emanating risks and their role in increasing abrupt consumption and loss of water. The company clarified that most of the leaks are mainly located in the tank float and its filler neck, as well as in the connection from the water meter to the underground tank, pointing out the importance of paying attention to leaks in toilet seats. The campaign is aligned with the National Water Strategy, whose vision is "A sustainable water sector that develops and conserves water resources and protects the environment.'