Saudi Arabia gets most of its water from two sources: desalination plants that convert seawater into drinking water, and ancient underground aquifers that hold “fossil” groundwater tens of thousands of years old. The kingdom is one of the driest countries on Earth, with no permanent rivers or lakes, so it has built the world’s largest water infrastructure to keep taps running for over 35 million people. A smaller but growing share comes from treated wastewater and seasonal rainfall captured behind hundreds of dams.
Desalination: The Backbone of Drinking Water
Desalination supplies roughly two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s municipal freshwater. The country currently produces about 2.18 billion cubic meters of desalinated water per year, and the government plans to push that share even higher, aiming for desalination to meet 90 percent of all water demand by 2030, with groundwater and surface water covering just the remaining 10 percent.
Getting that water from coastal plants to inland cities requires a staggering network of pipes. The Saline Water Conversion Corporation operates 14,217 kilometers of transmission pipelines, a system so vast it holds the Guinness World Record for the largest water pipeline network on Earth. That network has a daily capacity of over 19 million cubic meters, pumping desalinated water hundreds of kilometers from the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts to cities like Riyadh deep in the interior desert.
Desalination is expensive. Production costs currently run between $0.79 and $0.90 per cubic meter, and the process is extremely energy-intensive, historically powered by oil and natural gas. To reduce that fossil fuel dependence, Saudi Arabia launched the Al Khafji Desalination Plant in 2018, the world’s largest solar-powered desalination facility. It produces up to 90,000 cubic meters of clean water per day using solar panels, a test case for the broader shift toward renewable-powered desalination the kingdom is pursuing.
Fossil Groundwater: A Finite Reserve
Beneath Saudi Arabia’s desert sit massive aquifers filled with water that accumulated millions of years ago, when the climate was far wetter. This fossil groundwater has historically been the country’s primary water source for agriculture, and it still accounts for the majority of water used on farms. The problem is straightforward: these aquifers receive almost no natural recharge. The water being pumped out will not come back on any human timescale.
The numbers paint a stark picture. Groundwater storage in key agricultural regions is declining by about 3.7 cubic kilometers per year. Extraction from major aquifer systems peaked at 7 to 8 cubic kilometers per year around 2007, then dropped to roughly 5.5 cubic kilometers by 2015 as the government began restricting agricultural water use. Even at those reduced rates, depletion far outpaces any natural replenishment. Researchers have estimated that extraction would need to drop by another 3.5 to 4 cubic kilometers per year just to stabilize water levels, essentially cutting agricultural pumping in half.
Until the 1980s, aquifer extraction was minimal, under 1 cubic kilometer per year. What changed was a push for food self-sufficiency that turned Saudi Arabia into one of the world’s top wheat exporters by the 1990s, at an enormous hidden cost in water. The government has since reversed course, phasing out wheat production and restricting water-intensive crops, but decades of heavy pumping have already drawn down aquifer levels significantly.
Agriculture Still Dominates Water Use
Even after cutbacks, farming consumes about two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s total freshwater. In 2010, agriculture accounted for 87 percent of all water use nationwide; that share has dropped but remains dominant. Nearly all agricultural water comes from groundwater rather than desalination, because desalinated water is too costly to spray across fields at scale. About a third of agricultural water use goes to growing forage crops like alfalfa for animal feed, a particularly water-intensive practice in an arid climate.
This creates a fundamental tension. The country’s farms provide roughly a third of its food supply, but they do so by drawing down a resource that cannot be replaced. Balancing food security against water security is one of the central challenges of Saudi resource planning.
Treated Wastewater: An Underused Resource
Saudi Arabia treats large volumes of sewage, but reuse rates remain surprisingly low. Between 2006 and 2021, only about 18 percent of treated wastewater was actually put back to use. The rest was discharged into the sea, sand dunes, or dry riverbeds. Of the portion that is reused, about 66 percent goes to agriculture, though that represents only around 4 percent of total agricultural water consumption.
The main barrier is public acceptance. Surveys show strong support for using treated wastewater to irrigate parks, green spaces, and trees, with over 82 percent of respondents in one study backing that use. Irrigating animal feed crops also gets majority support. But using treated wastewater on vegetables, especially leafy greens eaten raw, faces high rejection rates. Date palm farmers in the Riyadh region have been quicker to adopt recycled water, with 97 percent of surveyed date farmers reporting they irrigate with treated sewage water.
Dams and Rainfall
Saudi Arabia does get rain, mostly in short, intense bursts during winter and spring, particularly in the southwestern Asir mountains. To capture that runoff before it disappears into the sand, the kingdom has built 574 dams with a combined design capacity of about 2.58 billion cubic meters. The government plans to construct 1,000 more. But sedimentation is steadily reducing the storage capacity of existing reservoirs, and rainfall is too unpredictable and geographically uneven to serve as a reliable primary source. Surface water and rainwater harvesting remain a small fraction of total supply.
How Much Water Saudis Use
The average Saudi resident used 299 liters of water per day in 2022, up from 272 liters in 2010. That puts the kingdom among the highest per capita water consumers in the world. Consumption varies dramatically by region: residents of Riyadh used 353 liters per day in 2022, while those in Najran used just 143 liters. The national average over the past decade sits at 288 liters daily.
For context, the global average is roughly 140 to 150 liters per day. Saudi Arabia’s high consumption reflects a combination of extreme heat, subsidized water prices that historically kept costs well below production value, and widespread use of water-intensive landscaping. The National Water Strategy 2030 specifically targets reducing consumption rates in both urban and agricultural sectors, though per capita use has continued to climb rather than decline so far.
The 2030 Strategy
Saudi Arabia’s long-term plan centers on a dramatic shift: moving nearly all water supply to desalination while preserving what remains of its groundwater for emergencies and limited agricultural use. The National Water Strategy 2030 lays out five core objectives, including ensuring continuous access to safe water during both normal operations and emergencies, reducing demand across all sectors, and optimizing the use of remaining natural water resources for current and future generations.
In practical terms, this means building significant new desalination capacity. Based on current projections, the country faces a shortfall of 4.5 million cubic meters per day that new urban desalination plants will need to fill. It also means expanding wastewater reuse from its current 18 percent toward much higher rates, and continuing to scale back water-intensive agriculture. The strategy also emphasizes private sector participation and innovation, signaling that the government sees water infrastructure as a growth industry rather than just a cost center.