Water scarcity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia (SA) is one of the world’s arid, most water-scarce nations without permanent water resources. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of Saudi Arabia’s water resources availability and reliability in terms of water supply, demand, and the major challenges that water faces. Saudi has an annual water supply of roughly 89.5 m3 per person as consumption is rising in parallel with the country’s rapid population growth and development. SA produces the most desalinated seawater in the world, accounting for 22% of worldwide consumption. Due to changes in agricultural demand, Saudi Arabia’s overall water needs in 2020 were 15.98 BCM. Apart from agricultural use, the food industry utilizes up to 80% of freshwater supplies, with only around 20% of rain recharging the aquifer, meaning that the region will still be water-stressed by 2025. In addition to wastewater reuse, water expenses should be split between private investors and the government, and water losses in cities should be collected and recycled. Water development projects must also be safeguarded and have long-term viability for the community’s future and well-being. Despite previous conservation efforts (public awareness campaigns, television and other public media messages, drip irrigation, and so on), more work is required, including improving water resource infrastructure, implementing environmental use of friendly technologies, and increasing economic feasibility, social acceptability, and management in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024.