Saudi Arabia has started taxing water for residents to try and address the soaring cost of debt as oil revenues decline. The water tariff comes amid warnings that Saudi Arabia’s groundwater will run out in the next 13 years.
Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, a faculty member at King Faisal University, warned that groundwater was running out after the World Bank issued a report on global natural water scarcity.
Groundwater in Gulf countries is running out because they have some of the highest levels of water consumption per capital in the world, Saudi newspaper Al-Watan Arabic daily reported. Daily water per person is reported to be 265 litres in Saudi Arabia, double the EU average.
“Official estimates have been disclosed showing an acute drop in water levels in agricultural areas, and that indicates the seriousness of the situation,” Al-Ghamdi said.
>Build an entire nation state in the middle of the desert >Be surprised when it runs out of water
Never could have seen that one coming
Aye dat Agriculture taking 83% of the water. Tbf with their still high level of wealth, it might just help importing more food and not bothering to spend loads of irrigation systems trying to water a desert.
Aye dat Agriculture taking 83% of the water. Tbf with their still high level of wealth, it might just help importing more food and not bothering to spend loads of irrigation systems trying to water a desert.
Which is great if importing food is relatively cheap and you can make enough money from selling oil. Unfortunately for the Saudis neither of those things are guaranteed.
The collapse of Saudi Arabia will serve as a warning for the rest of the world of what will happen if we keep drinking the kool-aid don't make a major push for sustainability.
Which is great if importing food is relatively cheap and you can make enough money from selling oil. Unfortunately for the Saudis neither of those things are guaranteed.
The collapse of Saudi Arabia will serve as a warning for the rest of the world of what will happen if we keep drinking the kool-aid don't make a major push for sustainability.
Oh yeah for sure, but may as well live the good life until they implode lol. There was a recent news report about a large city being built in Saudi that's had a load of set backs. One query was why it wasn't more green, no solar arrays type of thing. The young guy building it mentioned a few vague green measures and shrugged it off really. Are they blind or something? They release Allah ain't giving them an unlimited tap to take this stuff from right...it will run dry. Also for now it's value is so low getting the stuff out the ground is becoming less viable, the only reason everyone isn't cutting back production drastically is because they're so desperate for some income over nothing in the short term.
>Build an entire nation state in the middle of the desert >Be surprised when it runs out of water
Never could have seen that one coming
Don't worry about it, they are going to build a generation of incredibly water hungry nuclear power plants that will help power desalination plants. The perfect solution.