A Kahramaa official fining a residential property for keeping the lights on in the morning. (Photo: Kahramaa)
The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has launched a massive drive to enforce the Tarsheed law which bans wastage of electricity and water at industrial, commercial and residential facilities across the country.
In a new move, Kahramaa has begun posting live coverage of inspections on social media in a bid to boost its energy efficiency drive, Tarsheed. The Legal Monitoring Unit at the National Programme for Conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed) has posted a video on Snapchat under the account “Kahramaa.live” yesterday.
The footage shows a Kahramaa inspector with judicial powers inspecting a facility and registering violation for not switching off the light during day.
“There are inspectors with judicial powers. They visit the facilities to enforce the Tarsheed law. The law No 20 of 2016 has banned using drinking water for washing vehicles, equipment and outer parts of homes with gushing hoses," said Fahad Al Hanzab, Head of Legal Monitoring Unit at Tarsheed, in an introductory speech at the video.
“The unit is responsible for monitoring the commercial, industrial and residential facilities across the country,” he added.
Keeping exterior lights in the buildings on from 7 am to 4:30pm is made punishable by the law. Failure to fix leaking water taps and pipes after issuance of warning by the inspectors is also violation of the law, said Al Hanzab. The fine for wasting water through a hose or pressure pipe can reach up to QR20,000 in a first-time violation, while wasting electricity is punishable with fines up to QR 10,000.
The prime objective of Tarsheed is to reduce per capita water and electricity consumption in Qatar by 35% and 20%, respectively until 2017. Kahramaa caught almost 2,800 violations of the law on rationalization of water and electricity consumption until August 2015. The number of violations related to misuse of electricity was 1506 and water, 1,279.
