Water Supply and Sanitation in Saudi Arabia - Water Resources

Water Resources

See also: Geography of Saudi Arabia#Water resources

Saudi Arabia is one of the driest regions in the world, with no perennial rivers. Water is obtained from four distinct sources:

  • non-renewable groundwater from the deep fossil aquifers
  • desalinated water
  • surface water
  • renewable groundwater from shallow alluvial aquifers

Only the last two sources are renewable. Their volume, however, is minimal. Desalination plants provide about half the country’s drinking water. About 40% comes from groundwater. The remainder comes from surface water (about 10%). Desalinated water is prevalent along the coasts, surface water in the southwest region and groundwater elsewhere. The capital Riyadh, however, is supplied to a great extent with desalinated water pumped from the Persian Gulf over 467 km to the city located in the heart of the country.

Read more about this topic:  Water Supply And Sanitation In Saudi Arabia

Famous quotes containing the words water and/or resources:

    It is with artworks as it is with wine: it is much better when we do not need either one, when we stick with water, and when out of our own inner fire, the inner sweetness of our own soul, we turn the water over and over again into wine ourselves.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    ...wasting the energies of the race by neglecting to develop the intelligence of the members to whom its most precious resources must be entrusted, already seems a childish absurdity.
    Anna Eugenia Morgan (1845–1909)