Saudi Water Authority Chairman: The Kingdom’s daily water production is equivalent to the world’s oil production

Engineer Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Abdulkarim, Chairman of the Saudi Water Authority, confirmed that water desalination in the Kingdom is estimated at 15 million cubic meters per day, which is equivalent to the world’s oil production, adding that the water sector in the Kingdom has witnessed major qualitative shifts in the past few years.

This came during his participation in the dialogue session “Integration of government efforts in developing local content”, which comes within the activities of the Local Content Forum 2024, held in Riyadh over two days.

Al-Abdulkarim stressed that the water sector in the Kingdom is not a traditional sector, but rather a broad field that faces challenges that reflect great opportunities for the Kingdom to become a leader in this industry, which the world needs in the coming days, especially with climate change, which will become a global necessity in light of climate change, noting that what is being built in the Kingdom today of advanced and unique desalination plants at the global level is being created by the efforts of Saudi contractors.

He noted that the Authority is working on the regulatory axis with the Local Content Authority, in addition to local and international partnerships in developing businesses and changing business models, as well as supporting Saudi manufacturers and contractors in entering this industry, explaining that partnerships between the private and public sectors do not stop at a certain point, and that partnerships in the water sector start from research and innovation and transforming them into new projects.