Saudi arabia Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in saudi arabia, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Water
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Overview 

Saudi Arabia’s demand for water is growing steadily at a rate of 7 percent per year. This is due to a rapid expansion in the country’s economy and population since the discovery of oil nine decades ago. The population is expected to grow from 35.9 million to more than 48.4 million by 2050. The country’s water resources are scarce and under extreme pressure from the country’s growing population and urbanization. Saudi Arabia ranks as the third highest per capita water consumer in the world, behind only the U.S. and Canada (Time magazine). 

According to ScienceDirect, Saudi Arabia consumes roughly 7 billion/m3 of water every day, of which 60 percent is desalinated, 30 percent is sourced from ground water, and the remaining 10 percent is surface water. 20 percent of the desalination plants are private-run, and 40 percent are government-owned plants.
Given the limitations on natural water resources in Saudi Arabia, desalination facilities will continue to be built to meet the increasing water demands. It is anticipated that the supply of desalinated water will deliver 2.18 billion m3/year. MEWA plans to meet 90 percent of Saudi Arabia water demand using desalinated water and 10 percent using ground and surface water by 2030. Based on existing urban water demand and committed water supply, new urban desalination plants would be required to overcome a water shortage of 4.5 million m3/day.

The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture recently announced that they have allocated US$ 80 billion towards water projects within the coming years. This falls in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is to enable equal access to clean and safe water globally.
Saudi Arabia’s wastewater treatment services market is also growing at a steady pace. According to a recent study, Saudi Arabia built 133 wastewater treatment facilities in 2021 – an increase of 14.66 percent over the previous year.

In September 2023, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia announced the establishment of a Global Water Organization headquartered in Riyadh. The organization’s core activities will be to integrate and enhance the efforts made by governments and organizations in securing global water sustainably. The organization will also promote establishment and funding of high-priority projects. This is a great addition to the country’s developmental funding with over USD 6 billion allocated to various water and sanitation projects across four continents. In April 2022, Saudi Arabia launched an ambitious cloud seeding program operated by the Saudi National Meteorological Center (NMC). The program aims to increase water security and provide an alternative to the expensive, energy-intensive desalinization plants that currently provide the bulk of the Kingdom’s water.

The strategic objectives of Saudi Arabia’s National Water Strategy are to ensure continuous access to adequate quantities of safe water under normal operations and during emergency situations; enhance water demand management across all uses; deliver cost-effective and high-quality water and wastewater services; safeguard and optimize the use of water resources and preserve the local environment for the highest benefit of the Saudi society; and ensure water sector competitiveness through the promotion of effective governance, private sector participation, localization of capabilities, and innovation.

Key Players in the Saudi Arabia Water Sector

  • Ministry of Environment, Water, & Agriculture (MEWA): MEWA is responsible for the regulation and implementation of all aspects of the country’s policies for the environmental, water and agricultural sectors.
  • National Water Company (NWC): NWC is a Saudi joint stock company fully owned by the Public Investment Fund was established to provide water and wastewater treatment services in accordance with the latest international standards.
  • Saudi Water Partnership Company (SWPC): SWPC is a limited liability company with 50 percent ownership by Saline Water Conversion Corporation. (SWCC) and 50 percent by Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC).
  • Saudi Water Authority (SWA): Saudi Water Authority regulates activities and services related to water operations, oversees them, and develops methodologies that contribute to achieving the objectives of the National Water Strategy in line with the aspirations of Saudi Vision 2030.
  • Water Transmission Company (WTTCO): WITCO is an independent entity wholly owned by the government of Saudi Arabia. Aligned with the outcomes of the privatization program to achieve Vision 2030, the company is responsible for the development, implementation, management, operation, and maintenance of the water transmission, storage, and support systems across various regions of the Kingdom.
  • National Center for Privatization and PPP (NCP): NCP is a public center of excellence that aids in developing regulations, creating privatization frameworks, and preparing government assets and services for privatization.

Doing Business in the Saudi Water Sector

Although U.S. exporters are not required to appoint a local Saudi agent or distributor to sell to Saudi companies, it is strongly recommended that companies consider partnering with a local company for the purposes of monitoring business opportunities, navigating import and standard testing regulations, and identifying public sector sales and contract opportunities. Saudi Arabia’s Procurement Law regulates all government procurement –and tenders are announced on various websites such as: WTCO and SWPC. Under Vision 2030, water is a sector targeted for privatization by the NCP; however, SWPC has emerged as a leading procurement entity in this sector.

Opportunities 

Saudi Arabia’s ongoing capital projects portfolio is $6.28 billion. This is mainly for water distribution, water treatment plants, wastewater collection projects and wastewater treatment plants. Opportunities exist for consultants, contractors for water and wastewater networks, water treatment plants and sewage water plants, manufacturers of pipelines, tanks, pumps, flowmeters, smart meters, and other industry equipment.
In the water desalination sector, SWCC has initiated plans to use reverse-osmosis (RO) membrane-based desalination technologies, which are proven to be more energy efficient than thermal desalination. Within the GCC region, which primarily relies on thermal (70 percent), there has been growing interest in switching to RO technologies. 

There are some bright spots; membrane desalination accounts for 50 percent and 60 percent of capacity in Saudi Arabia, respectively, and it continues to grow. Saudi Arabia’s planned smart city initiative, NEOM, will rely on water from a reverse osmosis desalination facility entirely powered by renewable energy.

SWCC is also exploring ways to utilize brine, a byproduct of desalination. Every 1 liter (0.26 gallons) of desalinated water requires 1.5 to 2 liters (0.4 to 0.53 gallons) of seawater intake—1 liter will be potable water, and the rest will be brine. The brine is then typically dumped back into the sea. It is estimated that around 55 percent of the world’s brine is produced by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar. As a result, the waters of the Gulf are now believed to be 25 percent saltier than seawater elsewhere. SWCC is keenly interested in ocean brine mining, which involves the extraction of useful materials (chemical elements or compounds) which are naturally dissolved in brine.

Additional opportunities exist in efficient irrigation methods, technologies that can identify & repair excessive leakage in distribution networks, and landscaping designs that utilize local flora that require minimal water. considering imports for water-intensive crops are essential steps. Water reuse (or water reclamation) is another area that can be explored in the market as currently only 40 percent of wastewater is being reclaimed in the GCC. Investing in research and development to decarbonize desalination and reduce the environmental costs of brine presents yet another opportunity.

Saudi Arabia’s current and forecasted sewage network covers about 50 percent of total wastewater generated. According to 2018 data, Saudi Arabia has approximately 5.6 million m3/day of wastewater treatment capacity with 3.2 million m3/day under construction with 0.4 million m3/day planned for decommissioning. To achieve 2030 treatment targets, a total of 8.4 million m3/day of capacity addition is required.

Valued at $4.69 billion by Gulf State Analytics, Saudi Arabia’s water reuse market is estimated as the third largest in the world after China and the U.S. Saudi Arabia has approximately 200 wastewater treatment plants, with much of the treated non-potable wastewater finding useful purposes as “grey water,” watering green spaces in cities, irrigating crops, or reused in industry. Saudi Arabia has set a goal to achieve 100 percent reuse of treated urban wastewater by 2025. In Riyadh region, NWC is working on expanding and improving the water supply systems by constructing “city gates” reservoirs to receive potable water from desalination plants, transmission pipelines, and water networks.

SWPC seeks to progressively increase the participation of the private sector to 100 percent in desalinated water production by 2030. Between 2022 and 2030, it plans to bridge gaps in water production, strategic storage, and treatment capacities by analyzing supply and demand during this period and deploying projects accordingly. SWPC is working towards incorporating alternative energy source requirements to improve the uptake of solar generation in upcoming projects, supporting Saudi Arabia’s mandate to increase the usage of renewable energy.

Leading Sub-sectors

  • Water Transmission: As a result of aging distribution systems and inefficient usage, Saudi Arabia can lose up to 40 percent of its transmitted water on any given day. Opportunities exist for water efficiency and monitoring solutions such as radar beams, audio devices, and helium gas to monitor leaks in the networks.
  • Desalination: SWCC’s approved desalination budget for 2023 is USD. 6.6 billion. Currently SWCC has 30 plants in operation and are planning to start construction on five more within the next two years, to be in commission by 2027.
  • Wastewater Treatment: In its 2023 budget, NWC has allocated approximately 20 billion USD for 1,218 water distribution projects; 20.32 billion USD for 857 wastewater collection projects, and 3.29 billion for 86 wastewater treatment plant projects.
     

Resources

  • Ministry of Environment, Water, & Agriculture
  • Saudi Water Authority
  • National Water Company
  • Saudi Water Partnership Company
  • Water Transmission and Technologies Company
  • National Center for Privatization and PPP
  • Local Content & Government Procurement Authority

Events

  • Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition & Conference
  • Global Water Expo
  • Saudi Desalination & Water Innovation Summit
  • ME Water Week Conference & Exhibition


For more information, contact: sabah.hersey@trade.gov.

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