Overcoming groundwater scarcity
With aquifers declining around the world, the Kingdom is acting to stabilize and recover its precious water resources
Groundwater levels are in significant decline around the world, particularly in agricultural regions with dry climates that experience severe water deficiency. Saudi Arabia is one of several Middle Eastern nations that struggle with water scarcity.
The Kingdom is among the most arid countries in the world due to its minimal rainfall, high evaporation rates, temperature fluctuations, lack of natural perennial flow, and few groundwater supplies.
However, over the last few years, especially within the Ministry of Environment,
Water and Agriculture, work has been done to stabilize and even recover Saudi Arabia’s groundwater levels as well as develop plans to maintain the nation’s water resources at a sustainable level.
“Actions are being taken but more are needed,” Saleh bin Dakhil, a spokesperson for
MEWA, told Arab News. “Saudi Arabia is spearheading initiatives locally to mitigate the impact of high water demand mostly to agriculture.”
Aquifers supply more than 90 percent of the agricultural sector’s water needs and around 35 percent of urban water needs. “Groundwater is a critical resource for irrigated agriculture, livestock farming and other agricultural activities, including food processing,” Jippe Hoogeveen, senior land and water officer in the Land and Water Division at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, told Arab News.
“It is of critical importance to increase agricultural productivity through the sustainable intensification of groundwater abstraction, while decreasing the water and environmental footprints of agricultural production.”
For a water-stressed country like Saudi Arabia, substantial public and private sector investment has been made into water and desalination infrastructure to create as much usable water as possible.
The Kingdom has launched the National Water Strategy 2030, prepared according to the principles of integrated water resource management.
Additionally, technical and legislature governance tools have been put in place that include hundreds of groundwater observation wells augmented by licenses, metering of groundwater withdrawal and tracking of drilling rigs using smart technology to monitor water quality, conserve supplies and encourage efficiency. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is increasing the amount of rainwater harvesting through new dams and efficiently managing existing dams to allocate water to agriculture.
“The Kingdom has also established a center for water efficiency and rationing whose policies target increasing the efficiency of groundwater use and rationing its withdrawals,” said Bin Dakhil.
All these measures demonstrate the Kingdom’s steadfast attention to its own water scarcity but also the global challenge to use water sustainably.