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Saudi Arabia
Water Resources
In the absence of permanent rivers or bodies of water, rainfall,
groundwater, desalinated seawater, and very scarce surface water
must supply the country's needs. In eastern Arabia and in the
Jabal Tuwayq, artesian wells and springs are plentiful. In Al
Ahsa a number of large, deep pools are constantly replenished
by artesian springs as a result of underground water from the
eastern watershed of the Jabal Tuwayq. Such springs and wells
permit extensive irrigation in local oases. In the Hijaz and Asir,
wells are abundant, and springs are common in the mountainous
areas. In Najd and the great deserts, watering places are comparatively
fewer and scattered over a wide area. Water must be hoisted or
pumped to the surface, and even where water is plentiful, its
quality may be poor.
Modern technology has located and increased the availability
of much of the underground water. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi
Aramco) technicians have determined that very deep aquifers lie
in many areas of northern and eastern Arabia and that the Wasia,
the largest aquifer in Saudi Arabia, contains more water than
the Persian Gulf. The Saudi government, Saudi Aramco, and the
United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have
made separate and joint efforts to exploit underground water resources.
In the past, improperly drilled wells have reduced or destroyed
any good they might have served by leaching the lands they were
drilled to irrigate. Successive agricultural projects, many of
which were designed primarily to encourage beduin settlement,
have increased water resource exploitation. In the early 1990s,
large-scale agricultural projects have relied primarily on such
underground aquifers, which provided more than 80 percent of the
water for agricultural requirements. In fiscal year (FY--see Glossary)
1987, about 90 percent of the total water demand in the kingdom
was consumed by agriculture.
Data as of December 1992
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