Water in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has no perennial rivers, and its rainfall is low and erratic.¹ Most of its groundwater is fossil waterFossil water Groundwater that entered the aquifers thousands of years ago and is not the product of an ongoing hydrological cycle, so pumping it mines a stock that is barely recharged. In Saudi Arabia, FAO dates it to some 20,000 years ago. Source: AQUASTAT Country Profile: Saudi Arabia (2008 version), FAO held in deep aquifers, which for decades irrigated the country’s farms.^2 1 The cities now depend on desalinated seawater; inland cities such as Riyadh receive it from sources more than 400 km away.³ Private developers are building a growing share of new plants and pipelines under long-term contracts.⁴

For most of Arabia’s history, water came from springs and wells. At Al-AhsaAl-Ahsa An oasis in the eastern Arabian Peninsula, between the Gulf and the deserts of Ad-Dahna and the Empty Quarter. Its gardens, canals, springs and wells are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Source: Al-Ahsa Oasis, an Evolving Cultural Landscape, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, settled from the Neolithic to the present, water from springs and wells fed a network of open canals in what UNESCO calls the largest oasis in the world.⁵ The Darb Zubaydah, the main pilgrim route from the Iraqi city of Kufa to Makkah between 750 and 850 CE, had wells, pools and dams along its route.⁶ Zubaydah, wife of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, is said to have ordered a tunnelled conduit to carry water to Makkah.⁷ Modern supply came from two new sources. By 1972, seawater desalination plants were in production at Jeddah, Al-Wajh and Duba, and in 1974 a royal decree established the Saline Water Conversion Corporation.⁸ From the 1970s, state policy also drove a boom in farming based on fossil groundwater, and wheat output peaked at 4.1 million tonnes in the early 1990s.^1 9

Fossil water could not sustain that boom. Withdrawals from the Saq aquifer systemSaq aquifer A sandstone aquifer system that extends from northern Saudi Arabia into Jordan, where it is known as the Ram Group. It is pumped from the Tabuk Plain in Saudi Arabia to Wadi Rum in Jordan. Source: Inventory of Shared Water Resources in Western Asia, chapter 10, UN-ESCWA and BGR (2013) rose from about 890 million m³ a year in 1980 to 8,727 million m³ in 2005.¹⁰ State purchases of local wheat stopped in 2016, and the environment, water and agriculture minister says use of non-renewable groundwater fell from about 21 billion m³ in 2016 to about 11 billion m³ in 2025.^11 12 By 2026, desalinated water supplied about 70% of drinking water.¹³ Reuse lags behind: in 2025, a consultant quoted by Arab News put it at only about a quarter of the municipal wastewater treated each day, against a target of 70% by 2030.¹⁴

One interactive map of Saudi Arabia'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 transboundary river basins and aquifers that Saudi Arabia 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.

Saudi Arabia covers about 2.15 million km², by far the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula.¹ It has about 1,750 km of Red Sea coast and 480 km on the Gulf.¹ FAO divides it into four units: the Western Mountains of the Arabian Shield, the Central Hills, the eastern deserts and the coastal regions.¹ Along the Red Sea, the narrow Tihama coastal strip widens around Jeddah.² Sand seas cover much of the interior, from the Rub’ al-Khali in the south to the Great Nafud in the north.² There are no perennial rivers. Wadis flow only after heavy rain, in short flash floods.¹

Rainfall

Rainfall is low and erratic. The north receives 100–200 mm a year and areas further south less than 100 mm, though small parts of the western and southern highlands get 500 mm.¹ FAO put the national average at 114 mm a year.¹ Riyadh’s rain falls almost entirely between January and May, and Jeddah’s between November and January.² Years differ sharply. Average rainfall was 87 mm in 2018 but 55 mm in 2019.² That year, station totals ranged from 26.1 mm at Wadi AlDawasir to 304.4 mm at Khamis Mushayt.² Heavy rain brings flash floods. In 2009, 70 mm fell on Jeddah in about three hours, and the flood killed 113 people.²¹

In the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal’s ERA5 reanalysis, averaged over the whole of Saudi Arabia, about 64 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 FAO’s long-term national average of 114 mm a year). About 47% of the rain falls in November, January and March, and 6 months average less than 5 mm. Average rainfall in 1993–2022 was about 8% lower than in 1951–1980, and single years swing widely around that.

Heat

Inland summer temperatures range from 27 to 45 °C, and coastal ones from 27 to 38 °C.² In the centre, summer maxima exceed 50 °C, while winter nights come close to freezing.¹ For early August 2026 the National Center for Meteorology forecast 47–49 °C in parts of the east.²² A national trend study found temperatures rising in all regions and rainfall falling in many.²³ For South West Asia, the IPCC finds that warming has amplified droughts since the 1980s. Extreme rainfall has increased, mostly at higher elevations.²⁴

The same reanalysis gives a mean temperature of 26.0 °C for 1991–2020 and a warming of about 0.54 °C a decade over 1971–2022. Station records and national reports use other sources and periods, so their warming rates can differ.

Projections and the coast

In the World Bank’s CMIP6 ensemble, days above 35 °C rise from about 160 a year in 1995–2014 to about 225 by 2080–2099 under high emissions.²⁵ Rainfall projections disagree. The ensemble median shows about a fifth more rain, while a regional study found mixed changes, mostly negative under one scenario.^25 23 The IPCC expects heavier rainfall events in South West Asia as warming rises.²⁴ On the Gulf coast, about 614 km² lies below 1 m and 2,217 km² below 3 m.² A vulnerability study identified Al Wajh, Jeddah and Jazan as major coastal cities vulnerable to sea-level rise.²

Projected change for Saudi Arabia

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.

Fossil groundwater: the drawn-down inheritance

Groundwater lies in deep sedimentary aquifers, among them the Saq, Wajid, Tabuk, Minjur-Dhurma, Biyadh-Wasia, Umm er Radhuma and Dammam.² Most of it is fossil water, formed 10,000–32,000 years ago.² Renewable recharge mainly reaches shallow aquifers along the wadis and beneath alluvial fans.² Fossil groundwater built Saudi farming (see Water use).

Withdrawals from the whole Saq aquifer system rose from about 890 MCM a year in 1980 to 8,727 MCM in 2005.¹⁰ Around Tabuk, abstraction climbed from about 29 MCM a year in 1983 to between 1,050 and 1,700 MCM in 2004, against recharge of only 3–10 MCM. Water levels fell by up to 32 m a year in the late 1980s.¹⁰ A Saudi projection has the exploitable reserve falling from 75% to 38% between 2005 and 2055.¹⁰ Satellite data show groundwater storage losses of about 165 mm a year around Jeddah between 2002 and 2023.²⁶ The minister says non-renewable groundwater use fell from about 21 billion m³ in 2016 to about 11 billion m³ in 2025.¹²

Runoff and dams

The western region produces 60% of runoff from only 10% of the land.¹ Estimated runoff was 6,746 million m³ in 2018 and 4,179 million m³ in 2019. Dams captured 1,200 and 970 million m³ in those years.²

Manufactured water

Desalination carries municipal supply. In 2006 desalinated water covered about 48% of municipal use.¹ In 2018, desalinated water met almost 65% of urban demand, while non-renewable groundwater supplied about 30%.² By 2026 it supplied about 70% of drinking water, CSIS reported in March 2026.¹³

Supply by source

Saudi Arabia’s water use grew with its farms. Irrigation water roughly tripled, from about 6.8 km³ in 1980 to about 21 km³ in 2006, FAO estimated.¹ Total withdrawal reached 23.7 km³ in 2006, 88% of it for agriculture. That equalled 943% of the country’s renewable water resources.¹ Almost all irrigation drew on fossil groundwater. In 2000, 1.73 million ha were equipped for irrigation, more than 95% of them supplied from non-renewable aquifers.¹ AQUASTAT’s latest count, for 2015, is 3,278,900 ha equipped for irrigation (an official value).²⁸

Wheat: the rise and fall of self-sufficiency

The state built the farm boom deliberately. From the 1970s it issued well permits wherever exploration found water, lent interest-free for pumps and centre pivots, and paid half the cost of pumping stations.¹ Saudi Arabia began exporting wheat in the mid-1980s and produced 4.1 million tonnes at its peak in the early 1990s.⁹ Those exports rested on heavy subsidy.²⁹

Retrenchment came in stages. In 1994 the fixed wheat price was cut by 25%.¹⁰ Purchase cuts halved national output to about 2 million tonnes within five years, and exports of wheat and forage were banned.¹ In 2008 the government decided to phase out domestic wheat by 2016. State purchases of local wheat duly stopped in 2016.^30 11 Fodder took wheat’s place in places. In Tabuk it rose from 7% of the cropped area in 1989 to more than 45% in 1999, so abstraction did not fall.¹⁰ A ban on growing green fodder took effect on 5 November 2018.³¹

Wheat has since returned under quota, as an alternative to alfalfa.³² The ban on domestic wheat was partly lifted in November 2018, and small farmers have grown it under a quota since the 2019/20 season.³³ Production is now capped by a quota tied to groundwater availability. The 2026 harvest was forecast at about 1.1 million tonnes, against import needs of about 4 million.³⁴

The cities

Municipal demand now leans on desalination (see Water resources). Per-capita urban water use averaged 263 litres a day in 2019, and the Qatrah programme aims for 150 litres by 2030.³⁵

Use by sector

Withdrawals over time

FAO’s AQUASTAT estimates put Saudi Arabia’s freshwater withdrawals at 16.1 billion m³ in 1992 and 23.4 billion m³ in its latest estimate (2018). Agriculture’s share of the total moved from 89% in 1994 to 82% in the latest estimate (2018).

Farming is the kingdom’s largest water user. The national water accounts put agricultural use at 12,298 million m³ in 2023, of which 9,356 million m³ was non-renewable groundwater, 7% less than in 2022.³⁷ The ministry’s strategy page, which takes 2015 as its base year, puts the non-renewable share of the water supplied to agriculture at 90% and fodder at 67% of agricultural water requirements.³⁸ No published figure for desalinated water used on farms has been found. Depletion and the equipped area (3.28 million ha at the 2015 count) are under Water use.

Methods and efficiency

The ministry puts irrigation efficiency at around 50%, against a best practice above 75%.³⁸ In 2026 the chief executive of the Saudi Irrigation Organization gave about 55% and said a new Irrigation Practices Code, drawn up with FAO, aims for more than 70% and a saving of about 2 billion m³ a year.³⁹ Wheat covered 183,000 ha in the 2025/26 harvest, with output of about 1.1 million tonnes.⁴⁰

Crops, wells and licences

The 2018 green-fodder ban is described under Water use. Rules published on 25 October 2024 for wheat and seasonal fodder phase out perennial fodder under a plan lasting no more than three years, allow seasonal fodder on up to 50 ha per licence holder, bar new wells for either crop on the sedimentary shelf, require irrigation efficiency of at least 75% and meters on all wells, and cap the wheat area of companies and large farmers there at 50,000 ha.⁴¹ The ministry has set 16 November 2026 for ending perennial fodder in the sedimentary regions; Okaz gave perennial fodder about 32,000 m³ of water per hectare a year against no more than 9,000 for seasonal fodder.⁴² The USDA reports that the wheat quota programme was renewed in 2024 for five years, for up to 5,000 small farmers and 1.5 million tonnes a year, with the cap open to change depending on the aquifer, and that alfalfa seed imports were banned in April 2024 with a ban on domestic alfalfa scheduled from 2027/28.⁴⁰ A French Treasury note of 2025 says farmers still do not pay for the water they use and that authorities have begun a census of abstractions and tie subsidies to meter installation.⁴³

Treated wastewater

The water accounts count 555 million m³ of reused water consumed in 2023, against 495 million in 2022, without splitting it by sector.³⁷ The French Treasury note puts 22% of recycled water into irrigation of farms and green spaces, says reuse supplied 4% of the water consumed in agriculture in 2021, and gives the Al-Ahsa oasis, irrigated with recycled water since 1987 on 8,500 ha, 400,000 m³ a day.⁴³ The 2024 rules allow extra seasonal-fodder area where reclaimed water meeting ministry standards is used.⁴¹ The reuse target is under Water use; desalination plants and irrigation dams across the region are on the Agriculture & Food hub.

Saudi Arabia runs one of the world’s largest desalination fleets. In 2019 it had 51 plants with about 7.77 million m³ a day of capacity.² Thermal distillation still dominated: multi-stage flash produced 54% of output, multi-effect distillation 14% and reverse osmosis 32%.² The Gulf coast produced 53% and the Red Sea coast 47%.² By June 2026 the minister put production capacity at 16 million m³ a day.¹² Ras Al-Khair, a hybrid plant, has 1.05 million m³ a day of water and 2.65 GW of power capacity.⁴⁵

Tracked projects

Open the project database for Saudi Arabia

Independent water projects

Private plants now add capacity under long-term contracts. Rabigh 3, a reverse osmosis plant of 600,000 m³ a day, began commercial operation in 2021 at a tariff of SAR 1.99 per m³.⁴ Shuqaiq 3 followed in 2022, with 450,000 m³ a day for Jazan, Asir and Najran.⁴ Jubail 3A, at 600,000 m³ a day, came online in 2023 at SAR 1.55 per m³.⁴ Jubail 3B, with 570,000 m³ a day for Riyadh and Qassim, followed in 2024.⁴ More are contracted. Jubail 4&6 and Shuqaiq 4 are due in 2029, and Ras Al-Khair 3 and 2 in 2030 and 2031.⁴

Moving water inland

Transmission links inland cities such as Riyadh to sources more than 400 km away, and more than 10,000 km of new pipelines are planned.³ The Water Transmission Company has led efficiency work on the network since 2022.³ Two private transmission lines are due in 2029. Jubail–Buraydah will carry 650,000 m³ a day over 587 km, and Riyadh–Qassim 685,000 m³ a day over 859 km.⁴ Strategic storage capacity has grown by more than 125%, the minister said in 2026.¹² In Makkah, the Juranah reservoir will hold 2 million m³ of strategic storage plus 500,000 m³ of operational storage.⁴⁶

The 2026 war

Reports up to late July 2026 described damage to desalination plants in Kuwait and Bahrain, and CSIS reported indirect damage in Kuwait and the UAE; they did not establish whether any Saudi plant was affected.^47 13 The threat still shaped planning. In March Iran threatened the Gulf’s energy and water infrastructure, and the Guardian listed Saudi Arabia among the Gulf states heavily dependent on desalination.⁴⁸ On 30 March Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned what it called Iranian attacks on a Kuwaiti Armed Forces camp; the same day Kuwait said an attack on a power and desalination plant had killed a worker, which Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command blamed on Israel.⁴⁷ In April Saudi Arabia announced that nine drones had been intercepted and downed.⁴⁹ In July the Houthis said they had imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia and claimed attacks on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.⁵⁰ CSIS reported that Saudi Arabia’s strategic reservoirs provide only modest water reserves.¹³

Wastewater and networks

In 2019, 99 treatment plants handled 1,802 million m³ of sewage, but only 311 million m³, or 17.2%, was reused.² In 2025 a consultant quoted by Arab News put reuse at only about a quarter of the more than 6.5 million m³ of municipal wastewater treated each day, against a target of 70% by 2030.¹⁴ The National Water Company runs collection, treatment and reuse.² In February 2025 it completed a third phase that took a plant south of Riyadh to 400,000 m³ a day.⁵¹ The private Al Haer plant in Riyadh adds 200,000 m³ a day from 2026.⁴ The minister says all residents have safe drinking water, about 85% of them through the network.¹² Water losses stood at about 33% in 2025, and the ministry plans to cut them to around 15% by 2031.¹⁸ The National Water Strategy estimates network losses at more than 25% in some regions.³⁸ The National Water Company had installed more than two million smart meters by October 2020 and linked 950,000 customers to weekly high-consumption alerts.⁵²

Dams and reservoirs

By 2019 Saudi Arabia had built 522 dams, most of them for groundwater recharge and flood control.² The largest, King Fahd Dam at Bisha, holds 325 million m³.¹

Fossil water quality is expected to deteriorate as pumping draws poorer water toward the well fields, FAO noted.¹ In the western Saq–Ram aquifer, 25% of samples exceeded 50 mg/L of nitrate, mostly from shallow unconfined wells. Elevated concentrations of boron and selenium have also been detected, in about 37% and 26% of Saudi samples respectively.¹⁰ The same aquifer carries natural radioactivity. Combined radium-226 and radium-228 reach up to 4 Bq/L, against WHO guidance levels of 1 Bq/L for radium-226 and 0.1 Bq/L for radium-228.¹⁰ On the Gulf side, seawater intrusion and over-pumping are increasingly salinising the Umm er Radhuma–Dammam aquifer.⁵⁶

Soil salinity is appearing in newly developed farm areas, and at Al-Hassa drainage water is mixed with fresh groundwater for reuse.¹ Local studies add detail. Groundwater samples around Riyadh showed chloride up to 966.5 mg/L, some above limits.⁵⁷ Samples in Wadi Ranyah exceeded limits for arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel.⁵⁸

The coast

Desalination turns coastal water quality into a supply question. The 1991 Gulf War oil spills coated more than 770 km of coastline from southern Kuwait to Abu Ali Island.⁵⁹ In 2008–09 a red tide shut desalination plants in Oman and the UAE for up to two months, and reverse-osmosis intakes are considered more vulnerable to such fouling.¹³

The reported indicators

On the latest values each country reports for SDG indicator 6.3.1, Saudi Arabia’s 58% (2024) ranks 13th of the 17 countries covered here that report it; years differ by country. The regional comparison is in the wastewater and reuse dashboard.

Saudi Arabia shares no rivers, but its aquifers flow across borders. FAO estimated the outflow to neighbours at about 394 million m³ a year.¹ Jordan receives 180 million, Bahrain 112 million, Iraq 80 million, Kuwait 20 million and Qatar 2 million.¹

Jordan and the Saq–Disi aquifer

Jordan began pumping the shared Saq–Ram aquifer in 1977 and Saudi Arabia in 1983.¹⁰ Until the 1980s the groundwater flowed north toward Jordan. Heavy Saudi pumping for wheat reversed the groundwater flow toward the Saudi well fields.^10 60 Saudi withdrawals from this shared western part of the aquifer were estimated at over 1,000 MCM in 2008, and Jordan’s at about 60 MCM in a 2015 assessment.^60 10

A 2007 memorandum barred new production wells and farm expansion within 10 km of the border on both sides, but it was non-binding.¹⁰ On 30 April 2015 the two states signed a formal agreement. It creates a protected area of about 400 km² in each country, where groundwater-dependent activity was to end within five years, and a wider management area limited to municipal use.⁶⁰ It sets no numerical limits on extraction, and its joint technical committee has no decision-making power.⁶⁰ Public evidence on its implementation is scarce.

The Gulf aquifers

The Umm er Radhuma–Dammam system, shared with Bahrain and Qatar, flows west to east out of Saudi Arabia, and no agreement governs it.⁵⁶ The Wasia–Biyadh–Aruma system in the south, shared with Yemen, has no agreement either. Its use is limited to the area around the Sharurah border post.⁶¹

The record

Shared aquifers

• Neogene Aquifer System (South-East): Dibdibba-Kuwait GroupIraq, Kuwait · data moderate
• Saq-Ram Aquifer System (West) / DisiJordan · data good
• Tawil Quaternary Aquifer System: Wadi Sirhan BasinJordan · data good
• Umm er Radhuma-Dammam Aquifer System (Centre): GulfBahrain, Qatar, UAE · data good
• Umm er Radhuma-Dammam Aquifer System (North): Widyan-SalmanIraq, Kuwait · data moderate
• Umm er Radhuma-Dammam Aquifer System (South): Rub' al KhaliOman, UAE, Yemen · data moderate
• Wajid Aquifer SystemYemen · data good
• Wasia-Biyadh-Aruma Aquifer System (North): Sakaka-RutbaIraq · data moderate
• Wasia-Biyadh-Aruma Aquifer System (South): Tawila-Mahra/Cretaceous SandsYemen · data moderate

The Saline Water Conversion Corporation was founded in 1974.⁶² A Ministry of Water followed in 2001.¹ Today the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture sets policy under the National Water Strategy 2030 and its ten programmes.³⁸ In May 2024, Cabinet Resolution No. 918 converted the corporation into the Saudi Water Authority, the regulator of water services.⁶³ The authority calculates the gap between commercial-basis revenue and actual tariff revenue, and the Ministry of Finance covers it.⁶³ SWCC’s production, transport and storage assets are being transferred to the PIF-owned Water Solutions Company, as Arab News reported in 2023.⁶⁴ Sharakat, the Saudi Water Partnership Company, tenders water, wastewater, transmission, storage and dam contracts.⁶⁵

Prices and reform

Tariff reform has been politically sensitive. In 2016 the water minister was dismissed after an uproar over higher domestic tariffs.⁶⁶ In July 2021 the government suspended the privatisation of the Ras Al-Khair plant.⁶⁷ In July 2026 the Cabinet named 2027 the Year of Water.⁶⁸

Saudi Arabia has turned water into an industrial supply chain: desalination capacity has grown and fossil groundwater use has fallen (see Infrastructure and Water resources). The next test is heat (see Geography & climate), raising both demand and the energy cost of every cubic metre.

Three curves are worth watching: reuse climbing toward the 2030 target, private plants and pipelines arriving on schedule, and fossil abstraction continuing to fall.^14 4 The constraint is less money than the pace, and the energy, that Vision 2030 demands.