What Saudi Arabia is doing to save water
Saudi Arabia’s self-sufficiency policy has led to the overconsumption of water, a resource that Saudi Arabia critically needs.
Saudi Arabia represents a unique case of a country floating on vast oil wealth but lacking renewable water resources, which are necessary for its continued existence. The kingdom has no natural rivers, waterfalls or lakes. Half of its land is desert. And it has among the lowest yearly rainfall in the world, according to the most recent World Bank figures.
But nature is not the only reason why Saudi Arabia is lacking water. During the oil boom years that followed the rise of crude prices in 1973, Saudi Arabia faced the rising food demand by resorting to a self-sufficiency policy. It cultivated crops such as wheat, grains and fruits. At the same time, the higher demand for meat and dairy made the country expand its cultivation of green feed crops for cows and goats.
While this massive project to cultivate the desert has succeeded over the past four decades in securing the Saudis' basic food needs and in transforming Saudi Arabia into an active center of food production in the Gulf region, it came at the expense of Saudi Arabia’s underground water reserves.
In its 2013 study that monitored the water demand around the world, the World Resources Institute concluded that Saudi Arabia is among the countries that face the most pressure on its renewable water resources, which means that more than 80% of the usable water for agriculture, industry and daily consumption is withdrawn annually.
