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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
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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