Abu Dhabi: A new campaign is set to provide information to residents in the emirate of Abu Dhabi on how to reduce water consumption by 10 per cent and decrease energy use by 5 per cent by 2030.

The Tarsheed initiative by the emirate’s utilities regulator, the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea), will also provide advice to companies and organisations on how to use water and energy more judiciously. In addition, new fittings will also help reduce water consumption in mosques.

“We cannot force consumers to be more careful about resource use, but we can furnish them with handy information that can be incentivise them, and enable us to achieve our reduction targets for 2013,” Humaid Al Shamsi, sales support department manager at Adwea, told Gulf News.

Al Shamsi was speaking on the sidelines of the International Water Summit, which aims to discuss and promote resource conservation and sustainability. The summit is being held as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, a 10-day series of events that also includes the tenth edition of the World Future Energy Summit.

As part of Tarsheed, the Adwea will reach out to 220,000 households in the capital and create awareness about devices on the market that reduce water and energy consumption. These include watersavers for faucets, economical shower heads, dimmers and energy-efficient light bulbs.

Despite the UAE being an arid country, residents are known to use nearly 550 litres of water everyday, compared to the international daily average of 300 litres. In addition, a 2015 study by management consultancy Strategy& showed that the UAE’s gross domestic electricity consumption will reach 141 terawatt-hours in 2020, up from just 103 terawatt-hours in 2014.

“We want to create a spirit of conservation among residents through Tarsheed, and have allocated a dedicated team of 20 members to roll out the initiative across various consumer segments,” Al Shamsi said.

The Adwea will also monitor water usage patterns, with a focus on excess usage, in 85,000 villas and traditional buildings.

“Some villas have leaks in their plumbing, or inefficient pumps, leading to overconsumption. So we will compare usage with average consumption, and alert residents if they are exceeding the expected consumption amounts,” Al Shamsi explained.

This effort is expected to reduce water consumption in the emirate further by 20 million cubic metres.

In the public sphere, special attention will be paid to the 2,500 public mosques in a bid to save five million cubic metres of excess water lost during ablution (washing before ritual prayer). The installation of 42,000 low-flow, automatic cut-off faucets will help achieve this water saving.

There are also plans to provide detailed manuals to 100,000 non-residential entities, which currently use up more than half of all the available resources, on how to optimise electricity and water use.