Water in Kuwait

Kuwait has no permanent rivers or lakes. Most of its groundwater is brackish, with only two limited freshwater lensesFreshwater lens A body of fresh groundwater floating on brackish to saline groundwater. Kuwait's two lie under the surface depressions of Raudhatain and Umm Al-Aish in the north, where runoff from occasional intense rainstorms soaks in. Source: Sustainable water management in Kuwait (Mukhopadhyay and Akber), International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning 13(3), 2018.^1 2 Seawater desalination in large coastal plants, which also generate electricity, supplies almost all of the country’s drinking water.³ The government sets water prices low, and consumption is very high.² During the 2026 war, strikes damaged several power and desalination plants (see Infrastructure).^4 5 6

Kuwait has long had to look beyond its own ground for water. The town once drew its drinking water from wells on its outskirts, most of them more or less brackish, and many gave out when the rains were slight.⁷ In 1908, after the winter rains failed and the pearling season of 1907 had been poor, boat owners began carrying water from the Shatt al-ArabShatt al-Arab A river in south-eastern Iraq, formed where the Tigris and Euphrates meet at Al-Qurnah. It flows about 193 km south-east past Basra to the Gulf, and for about the last half of its course forms the border between Iraq and Iran. Source: Shatt Al-Arab, Encyclopædia Britannica in Iraq.⁷ By 1933, more than fifty boats fitted with tanks worked in the trade, and the town depended almost entirely on it for drinking water.⁷ Then Kuwait turned to the sea. Its first seawater desalination plant opened at Al Ahmadi port in 1951,¹ and in 1960 Kuwait was the first to put multi-stage flash distillationMulti-stage flash distillation A thermal desalination process, usually linked to power plants. Seawater is heated to between 90 and 120 °C and passed through a series of chambers at ever lower pressure; in each, part of it flashes into vapour, which condenses as fresh water. Source: Desalination in the GCC: The History, the Present and the Future, GCC Secretariat General, 2nd edition, 2013 into service.⁸ Seawater has been the main source of Kuwait’s fresh water since the 1960s.⁹

Low prices have kept demand high. Consumption averaged 442 litres a person a day in 2014, and the state subsidises about 92% of the cost of producing water.^2 10 Since 2004, the Sulaibiya plant has reclaimed treated wastewater for agriculture and industry,^2 11 and contracts signed in 2026 add reverse osmosis at Az-Zour North and at Kuwait’s Doha plant.^12 13 The 2026 war showed how thin the margin is. Kuwait’s reported reserves might cover 10–15 days, and in April 2026 it announced six underground reservoirs.^14 15

One interactive map of Kuwait's water, built from real geodata. Climate & drought maps the aridity gradient (WorldClim) with warming projections. The Water risk layer's WRI Aqueduct indicators, covering overall water risk, water stress and flood risk (plus groundwater decline where the trend is significant), shade every river sub-basin by its 0–5 risk score. Demand shows where the population, and the water demand, concentrate. Infrastructure brings the physical system together: rivers, dams (FAO AQUASTAT), treatment plants, desalination and the major conveyors. Shared waters outlines the aquifers that Kuwait shares with other countries, each drawn in full across the border; hover an outline for the countries that share it. Hover any sub-basin or marker for detail; sources are cited under each view.

Kuwait is flat desert at the head of the Gulf. It covers 17,818 km², including nine uninhabited islands, and runs about 170 km east to west and 200 km north to south.³ The plains slope gently to the north-east, and the highest ground, about 300 m, lies in the south-west.¹ Kuwait Bay’s shore accounts for nearly half of the coastline, and the two largest islands, Boubyan and Warba, remain undeveloped.³ In the south, intertidal sabkhas line the coast. The largest, Al-Khiran Sabkha, has been turned into a waterfront city.³ The coastline runs about 500 km including the islands.³ There are no permanent rivers or lakes, only small wadis in shallow depressions, where flash floods last hours to days.¹

Rainfall

Rain is scarce and erratic. The average is about 112 mm a year, ranging from 75 to 150 mm, while FAO’s long-term figure is 121 mm.^3 1 The season runs from October to May.¹ Annual totals at Kuwait International Airport have ranged from 34.4 mm to 218 mm, and Umm Al-Maradim Island recorded 319.5 mm in October 2013.³ Heavy rain overwhelms the ground quickly. Storms in November 2018 brought far more than the 18 mm the month usually sees.²⁰

In the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal’s ERA5 reanalysis, averaged over the whole of Kuwait, about 134 mm of rain falls in a year (1991–2020). Station records and national averages use other sources and baselines, so their figures can differ (the text cites about 112 mm a year from the national communication and FAO’s long-term 121 mm). About 64% of the rain falls in November, December and January, and 6 months average less than 5 mm. Average rainfall in 1993–2022 was about 19% higher than in 1951–1980, and single years swing widely around that.

Heat, humidity and dust

Summer runs from late May to early November, with daily maxima of 43–48 °C.³ The highest recorded temperature is 53.9 °C, at Mitribah on 21 July 2016, the value the World Meteorological Organization accepted after evaluating the 54.0 °C reading,²¹ above the previous 52.9 °C at the same station.³ The lowest was −4 °C at Kuwait International Airport in January 1964.³ Coastal humidity can exceed 95% from mid-August into September.³ Dust storms are frequent in summer, with winds up to 150 km/h, and their sources lie in Mesopotamia.³ Kuwait Bay’s sea-surface temperature rose by 0.6 °C a decade between 1985 and 2002, three times the global rate.³ Across South West Asia, the IPCC finds that warming has amplified droughts since the 1980s.²²

The same reanalysis gives a mean temperature of 26.2 °C for 1991–2020 and a warming of about 0.50 °C a decade over 1971–2022. Station records and national reports use other sources and periods, so their warming rates can differ.

Projections

Regional models project inland warming of 2.5–2.7 °C by 2071–2100 under a middle scenario, and 4.3–4.5 °C under high emissions.³ Rainfall would fall by 6–9% in the east and 15–18% in the west under high emissions.³ The World Bank’s CMIP6 ensemble instead shows slightly more rain, a reminder of how uncertain rainfall projections are here.²³ Days above 35 °C rise from about 171 a year in 1995–2014 to about 213 by 2080–2099 under high emissions.²³ The national communication tested sea-level rises of 0.5 to 2.0 m by 2100. At 2.0 m, about 454 km² would be inundated, including half of Boubyan Island.³

Projected change for Kuwait

The table gives the CMIP6 multi-model median from the same World Bank portal, as change against 1995–2014. Projections cited in the text may use other models, scenarios or baselines, so their figures can differ.

Kuwait has almost no renewable water. Internal renewable groundwater is negligible, and about 20 million m³ a year flows in from Saudi Arabia.¹ The Hasa Group of limestone aquifers underlies the Kuwait Group of sands and gravels.¹ Fresh water exists only as two lenses, at Raudhatain and Umm Al-Aish, in the transboundary Dammam aquifer.³ FAO put fresh primary groundwater withdrawal at 255 million m³ a year, more than 12 times the annual inflow.¹ Desalination supplies more than 90% of potable water.³ Al Jazeera puts desalination at 47% of the 1.7 billion m³ Kuwait uses a year and groundwater, most of it brackish, at 51%;^24 1 CSIS puts desalination at 42.2% of total water demand.⁴

Reclaimed water from the Sulaibiya plant supplies agriculture and industry.¹¹ Planning sends 40% of it to Wafra, 40% to Abdally and 20% to farms around Sulaibiya.³

The fresh lenses

The two lenses are kept as a strategic drinking-water reserve.¹ Production at Raudhatain was cut from just over 2 million imperial gallons a day in 1963–67 to about 1 million, to limit saline upconing.² The field facilities were destroyed during the 1990–91 occupation.²

Supply by source

Kuwait’s public supply is desalinated: the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy produced 172,199 million imperial gallons of distilled water in 2023, about 783 million m³, and 12,946 million imperial gallons of brackish groundwater, about 59 million m³.²⁵ No source covers private and farm wells and treated wastewater for the same year, so no supply mix is charted.

Between 1925 and 1950 Kuwait imported fresh water from the Shatt al-Arab in Iraq to supplement its wells.¹

Farms on brackish water

Withdrawals rose from 538 million m³ in 1993 to 913 million m³ in 2002. Agriculture took 54%, municipal use 44% and industry 2%.¹ Most farm water was brackish: 300 million m³ came from private boreholes at Al Abdali and Al Wafra, and 66 million m³ was treated wastewater.¹ Irrigation began in the late 1950s, and sprinklers using treated wastewater arrived in 1977.¹

Demand and subsidy

Consumption averaged 442 litres a person a day in 2014.² Residential freshwater use rose from 150 billion litres in 2001 to 634 billion litres in 2020.¹¹ Kuwait subsidises about 92% of the cost of producing water, making prices among the lowest in the world.¹⁰ Until mid-2016 water was offered at virtually no cost, and the 2016 reform raised residential electricity prices for expatriates only.²⁶

Use by sector

No split of water use by sector is charted for Kuwait: FAO AQUASTAT last observed all three sectors in 2002, while agriculture alone was updated to 2017,¹⁷ and the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy’s yearbook, which puts distilled water production at about 783 million m³ in 2023, does not split consumption between households, farms and industry.²⁵

Withdrawals over time

FAO’s AQUASTAT estimates put Kuwait’s freshwater withdrawals at 307 million m³ in 1993 and 770 million m³ in its latest estimate (2017). Agriculture’s share of the total moved from 58% in 1994 to 62% in the latest estimate (2017).

Farms draw on three sources: brackish groundwater, treated wastewater and desalinated water.¹¹ FAO’s profile says fresh groundwater is kept as a strategic reserve for drinking and not used for farming, while the brackish fields, with a production capacity of about 545,000 m³ a day, serve agriculture; farmers may withdraw only from the Kuwait group aquifer.¹ FAO’s estimate for 2017 puts agriculture at 62% of a total withdrawal of 1.25 billion m³.²⁸ The 2002 split between boreholes and treated water is under Water use.

Land, methods and charges

The area equipped for irrigation was 16,980 ha in the 2015 count.²⁸ The last reported split by method, for 2003, put surface irrigation at 63% of a smaller equipped area of 7,050 ha, localised irrigation at 24% and sprinklers at 13%.¹ Private farms are leased by the government to investors for 25 years, renewable. The profile reports no charge for groundwater, US$0.9 to 1.5 per m³ for desalinated water and US$0.07 per m³ for treated sewage, for 2008 or earlier; the electricity and water ministry licenses drilling and groundwater use.¹

Treated wastewater

The Environment Public Authority reports that 36% of treated wastewater was reused in 2018.²⁹ Using treated municipal water has reduced the productivity of brackish-water farms since 2006, according to a study cited in a 2022 review.¹¹ In 2022 the Ministry of Public Works planned tenders to renew the Wafra and Abdali networks with at least 250,000–300,000 m³ a day each;³⁰ in July and August 2026 bids came in for treated-water systems in the south (lowest bid about KD 160 million) and the north (lowest bid US$169 million), described as supporting food security, with no award reported at the time.^31 32 The register lists the Al-Jahra wastewater treatment plant, whose effluent irrigates crops; other agricultural water projects are on the Agriculture & Food hub.

Kuwait’s first seawater desalination plant opened at Al Ahmadi port in 1951 with a capacity of 364 m³ a day.¹ Iraqi forces destroyed most of Kuwait’s desalination capacity in 1991 during the first Gulf War, and after liberation shortages cut household supply to four days a week.⁴ The fleet is mostly thermal and is being rebuilt. In 2015 six multi-stage flash plants, at Shuaiba North and South, Doha East and West, Al-Zour South and Sabiya, held 92% of capacity, alongside the Shuwaikh reverse-osmosis plant.³ Another 0.5 million m³ a day of reverse osmosis was planned.³ Output grew by about 3.6% a year between 2005 and 2015.³ Az-Zour North, the first independent power and desalination plant, was installed in 2015.³ Eight coastal plants had 3.11 million m³ a day of capacity by about 2022.¹¹

Tracked projects

Open the project database for Kuwait

New procurement

Three projects now set the pace. In February 2026 an ACWA Power-led consortium signed for Az-Zour North phases 2 and 3: 2,700 MW and about 545,500 m³ a day of reverse osmosis.¹² Bids for Al Khairan Phase 1, which combines 1,800 MW of power with 33 MIGD of desalination according to the partnership authority (trade press reports 125 MIGD), were opened by the authority and the ministry in June 2026.^33 34 In August 2026 a WABAG-led joint venture with Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding signed for the second stage of the Doha reverse-osmosis plant, at 60 MIGD or about 272 million litres a day.^13 35

Storage, pipes and meters

The ministry’s water projects plan for 2026/27 covers 18 contracts. They include four freshwater complexes at Wafra, Doha, Shuwaikh and Hawally, each with two ground-level reservoirs, a pumping station and a substation.³⁶ New pipelines will link Mina Abdullah to West Fintas, carry brackish water from Mina Abdullah to Zour, and connect the Wafra complex to southern Sabah Al-Ahmad City.³⁶ The ministry is also tendering 300,000 smart water meters to replace mechanical ones across residential areas.³⁷

Wastewater

The Ministry of Public Works collects sewage through 4,700 km of gravity sewers, 17 major and 57 secondary pumping stations, and 1,600 km of pressure mains.³ Six treatment plants serve the Kuwait City area, five of them using rapid sand filtration and chlorination.³ More than 90% of the population is connected to central sewerage.³ The Sulaibiya reclamation plant opened in 2004 with a design capacity of 375,000 m³ a day. Its capacity was later raised to about 600,000 m³ a day.^2 11 Its reverse-osmosis output meets WHO potable standards, although the water is not piped to taps.¹¹

The 2026 war

Early in the war the Doha West power and water station was damaged, though it kept operating.⁴ On 30 March a strike on a power and desalination plant killed an Indian worker.⁵ In early April two more plants were damaged by drones, and further sites were hit after the 8 April ceasefire.^6 38 In July the electricity ministry reported strikes on power and desalination plants for four consecutive nights, the fourth on 21 July.³⁹ Residents were urged to ration electricity, but no formal water rationing was reported.^40 39

Kuwait is building a deeper buffer. In April 2026 it announced six underground reservoirs at Al Na’eem, each holding 100 million imperial gallons.¹⁵ Its reported reserves might cover 10–15 days.¹⁴

Kuwait’s farm wells have grown steadily saltier. At Al Wafra, the share of wells pumping water above 7,500 ppm rose from 50% in 1989 to 85% in 2002, and at Al Abdali from 55% to 90%.¹ In the Dammam aquifer, salinity doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 mg/L between 1960 and 1990.⁴¹ Salinity in the Kuwait Group aquifer ranges from 4,000 mg/L in the south-west to 18,000 mg/L and more in the north-east.⁴²

1991 and after

Oil lakes covered 12.28 km² of the Raudhatain oil field.⁴³ ESCWA notes that the two freshwater lenses may have been polluted by oil spills;⁴² Mukhopadhyay and Akber (2018) report that Umm Al-Aish was abandoned after oil from damaged wells polluted it.²

Bromate

Desalinated water brings its own chemistry. A study of 194 samples found mean bromate of 19.6 µg/L in tap water, above the 10 µg/L limit, against 2.89 µg/L in bottled water.⁴⁴

The reported indicators

On the latest values each country reports for SDG indicator 6.3.1, Kuwait’s 100% (2024) ranks joint 1st of the 17 countries covered here that report it; years differ by country. The regional comparison is in the wastewater and reuse dashboard.

Kuwait shares no rivers, but its aquifers extend into Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and none is covered by a water agreement.^42 41 About 20 million m³ of groundwater flows in from Saudi Arabia each year.¹ Around 16,000 km² of the Dibdibba–Kuwait Group aquifer lies in Kuwait; in the 1980s Kuwait drew an estimated 88 million m³ a year from the Neogene and Dammam aquifers, excluding private wells.⁴² Pumping became significant in the mid-1980s and lowered the water table by 5–20 m along the Saudi border.⁴² In the Dammam aquifer, water levels fell 40–60 m between 1960 and 1990.⁴¹ Kuwait drew about 90 million m³ from the Umm er Radhuma–Dammam in 1993, and it was reportedly preparing a joint study of the aquifer with Saudi Arabia.⁴¹

In August 2026 a workshop organised by the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority, attended by Kuwait’s ministry, reviewed the first phase of a feasibility study for a Gulf water interconnection.⁴⁵

The record

Shared aquifers

• Neogene Aquifer System (South-East): Dibdibba-Kuwait GroupIraq, Saudi Arabia · data moderate
• Umm er Radhuma-Dammam Aquifer System (North): Widyan-SalmanIraq, Saudi Arabia · data moderate

The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy produces and distributes water. Its water projects sector plans, designs and supervises the works.³⁶ The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects runs the independent water and power tenders with the ministry.³⁴ The Central Agency for Public Tenders handles conventional contracts, such as the smart-meter programme.³⁷ The Ministry of Public Works manages wastewater collection and treatment.³ The Kuwait Environment Public Authority is the national focal point for the UN climate convention.³ Groundwater is classified as fresh, brackish or saline according to the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources; the electricity and water ministry licenses well drilling and groundwater use.¹

Kuwait’s supply is manufactured and its demand is subsidised: desalination provides nearly all drinking water, the aquifers that remain are mostly brackish, and the state pays most of the cost of producing water (see Water resources and Water use). Heat is rising, with more days above 35 °C projected under high emissions (see Geography & climate).

The near-term agenda is procurement and measurement: reverse osmosis at Az-Zour North 2&3 and Doha, a new power and water plant at Al Khairan, new reservoirs and pipelines, and 300,000 smart meters.^{12 34 35 36 37}