Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — A recent study has warned that the Kingdom’s underground water resources would run out within 60 years if its people continued to consume water at the current rate.

Saudi Arabia’s water management system faces two major challenges: lack of proper monitoring regimes to check sources of pollution; and excessive use of underground water.

It is a big challenge to monitor fuel stations, garbage dumps, sewage networks, industrial waste, water wells and agricultural land and their negative effect on the environment, the study says.

The study points out that all of the aforesaid pollution sources are not monitored properly to reduce their impact on the environment while highlighting excessive exploitation of underground water sources.

The rate of water consumption in the Kingdom is one of the highest in the world. The agricultural sector consumes 84 percent of the ground water. The Kingdom depends on ground water to a large extent to meet its water needs.

About 81 percent of ground water in the Kingdom is not renewable, the study says.

The problem is that Saudi Arabia doesn't get enough rainfall to replace excessive draining. Its aquifers had built up over tens of thousands of years and were now being drained all at once.

According to the study, unauthorized wells posed a big threat to underground water resources in the Kingdom. Authorities have failed to monitor construction of such wells while allowing farmers to construct as many wells as they wanted, it says.

Only 17 percent of the treated sewage water is used for irrigation and other purposes while the remaining water is dumped in valleys and seas, the study points out.

The total volume of usable ground water in the Kingdom has reached 1,180 billion cubic meters and this will be enough to meet the Kingdom’s water needs for 60 years only if the consumption continues at the current rate.

Saudi Arabia relies on two sources of water: groundwater and desalinated sea water. The desalination process is energy intensive and extremely expensive.

Groundwater accounts for 98 percent of water sources in Saudi Arabia because the country is devoid of rivers and lakes.