Riyadh is creating a database of all its groundwater resources, based on one of the world's largest surveys of aquifers.
Its previously undisclosed studies cover large aquifers across the country.
The data will be used to plan the kingdom's water requirements for up to 50 years.
Four main and several minor studies are either planned or being carried out. A three-year analysis, called the Wajid study, into groundwater in the southern half of the country is under way. The work involves drilling to determine the extent of the water, along with hydrochemical testing and associated geological investigations.
'We have a team of up to 40 experts working on this,' says a source involved on the project. 'Results from all the studies will be put into one big water management database to allow the government to make accurate predictions up to 2050.'
France's Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres is carrying out a two-year study called the Saq survey in the north, close to the border with Jordan.
Germany's GTZ is carrying out the Wajid study and has also completed a two-year analysis of the Ummer Radhuma fossil aquifer in the east, which runs for several thousand kilometres from the border with Iraq to the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter), and is one of the largest limestone aquifers in the world.
Another study, called Tihama, is also planned to map a fossil aquifer along the Red Sea coast.
The information collected will be used to shape the kingdom's future water policies.
'The data will form the first draft of a national water master-plan which will form the basis for all future agricultural irrigation activity,' says the source.
'The government knows that the present use of irrigation in agriculture is not sustainable.'
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