Saudi Arabia meeting water scarcity challenge with innovation

Saudi Arabia meeting water scarcity challenge with innovation

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's National Water Co. (NWC) this month signed a $5.36 million two-year contract with a French utilities company to reduce the amount of water lost during the Kingdom's water production process, known as non-revenue water in the industry.

This is a positive step forward, as a report released late last year by global consultancy firm Oliver Wyman found that while water usage is rising, supply is diminishing. The study estimated that 25 percent of the world's population lives in areas that suffer extremely high water stress, and by 2050 that portion of the population will more than double.

"With water resources becoming increasingly scarce globally, the Middle East region is addressing the critical issues, with governments increasingly adopting new strategies for balancing their scarce water resources and growing demand for fresh water,“ said Bruno Sousa, a partner in the Energy Practice at Oliver Wyman. "This has led some countries in the Middle East to turn to options such as desalination and

treatment, and reuse of wast water,“ he added.

Saudi Arabia is the third biggest consumer of water per capita in the world, after the US and Canada. The Kingdom has implemented a series of measures to rationalize water consumption as part of