Saudi Arabia’s drinking water consumption rises 8% in 2018

Saudi Arabia’s drinking water consumption rose 8 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 3.39 billion cubic meters in 2018, data issued by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture showed.

Desalinated water accounted for 63 percent (2.14 billion cubic meters) of distributed water for the year, while groundwater represented 37 percent or 1.26 billion cubic meters.

Drinking Water Consumption Since 2007 (mln cubic meters)
Year	Consumption	Variation
2007	1,977	--
2008	2,005	+1%
2009	2,123	+6%
2010	2,283	+8%
2011	2,423	+6%
2012	2,527	+4%
2013	2,731	+8%
2014	2,874	+5%
2015	3,025	+5%
2016	3,129	+3%
2017	3,150	+1%
2018	3,392	+8%

Riyadh topped the list in terms of water consumed by the Kingdom’s cities, with 1.07 billion cubic meters of drinking water, or 32 percent of the total consumption. It was followed by Makkah with 761 million cubic meters, or 22 percent.

Households consumed nearly 2.88 billion cubic meters of drinking water, representing 85 percent of total consumption last year, while the commercial consumption accounted for just 15 percent.

Water Consumption by City & Use
City	Commercial consumption	Household consumption	Total Consumption (Cubic meters)
Riyadh	15%	85%	1,072
Makkah	15%	85%	761
Eastern Province	15%	85%	675
Medina	15%	85%	240
Qassim	15%	85%	173
Asir	15%	85%	105
Jazan	15%	85%	86
Tabuk	15%	85%	71
Hail	16%	84%	64
Al Jouf	15%	85%	48
Northern Boarders	15%	85%	34
AlBaha	16%	84%	32
Najran	16%	84%	31
Total	15%	85%	3,392

The number of service subscribers edged down 1 percent YoY to 1.95 million in 2018, due to updated data of customers.

Riyadh had the largest number of consumers at 629,660, while Makkah had 343,070 last year.

Service Subscribers by City & Purpose
City	2017	2018	Variation
Riyadh	612.66	629.66	+3%
Makkah	349.45	343.07	(2%)
Eastern Province	337.80	340.37	+1%
Qassim	155.89	154.11	(1%)
Medina	114.51	114.27	(0.2%)
Jazan	72.98	88.31	+21%
Hail	69.69	53.97	(23%)
Najran	51.60	51.60	--
Aseer	44.51	47.97	+8%
Tabuk	71.06	47.93	(33%)
Al Baha	35.00	39.17	+12%
Northern Boarders	29.87	22.56	(24%)
Al Jouf	28.55	21.51	(25%)
Total	1,973.56	1,954.51	(1%)

Total demand for water in 2018 hit 25.99 billion cubic meters, 13 percent of which were for municipal purposes, 5 percent for industrial purposes and 82 percent for agriculture, the report added.

Water Demand (mln Cubic meters/year)
Use	Total Demand 2017	Percent to total	Total Demand 2018	Percent to total	Year-on-year variation
Municipal purposes	3,150	14 %	3,392	13 %	+18%
Industrial purposes	1,000	4 %	1,400	5 %	+40%
Agricultural purposes	19,200	82 %	21,200	82 %	+10%
Total	23,350	100 %	25,992	100 %	+11%

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