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Saudi Arabia
Water Resources
In the absence of permanent rivers or bodies of water, rainfall,
groundwater, desalinated seawater, and very scarce surface water
must supply the country's needs. In eastern Arabia and in the Jabal
Tuwayq, artesian wells and springs are plentiful. In Al Ahsa a number
of large, deep pools are constantly replenished by artesian springs
as a result of underground water from the eastern watershed of the
Jabal Tuwayq. Such springs and wells permit extensive irrigation
in local oases. In the Hijaz and Asir, wells are abundant, and springs
are common in the mountainous areas. In Najd and the great deserts,
watering places are comparatively fewer and scattered over a wide
area. Water must be hoisted or pumped to the surface, and even where
water is plentiful, its quality may be poor.
Modern technology has located and increased the availability of
much of the underground water. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi
Aramco) technicians have determined that very deep aquifers lie
in many areas of northern and eastern Arabia and that the Wasia,
the largest aquifer in Saudi Arabia, contains more water than the
Persian Gulf. The Saudi government, Saudi Aramco, and the United
Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have made separate
and joint efforts to exploit underground water resources. In the
past, improperly drilled wells have reduced or destroyed any good
they might have served by leaching the lands they were drilled to
irrigate. Successive agricultural projects, many of which were designed
primarily to encourage beduin settlement, have increased water resource
exploitation. In the early 1990s, large-scale agricultural projects
have relied primarily on such underground aquifers, which provided
more than 80 percent of the water for agricultural requirements.
In fiscal year (FY--see
Glossary) 1987, about 90 percent of the total water demand in the
kingdom was consumed by agriculture.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
Climate
With the exception of the province of Asir with its towns of Jizan
on the western coast and Najran, Saudi Arabia has a desert climate
characterized by extreme heat during the day, an abrupt drop in
temperature at night, and slight, erratic rainfall. Because of the
influence of a subtropical high-pressure system and the many fluctuations
in elevation, there is considerable variation in temperature and
humidity. The two main extremes in climate are felt between the
coastal lands and the interior.
Along the coastal regions of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf,
the desert temperature is moderated by the proximity of these large
bodies of water. Temperatures seldom rise above 38° C, but the
relative humidity is usually more than 85 percent and frequently
100 percent for extended periods. This combination produces a hot
mist during the day and a warm fog at night. Prevailing winds are
from the north, and, when they blow, coastal areas become bearable
in the summer and even pleasant in winter. A southerly wind is accompanied
invariably by an increase in temperature and humidity and by a particular
kind of storm known in the gulf area as a kauf. In late
spring and early summer, a strong northwesterly wind, the shamal,
blows; it is particularly severe in eastern Arabia and continues
for almost three months. The shamal produces sandstorms
and dust storms that can decrease visibility to a few meters.
A uniform climate prevails in Najd, Al Qasim Province, and the
great deserts. The average summer temperature is 45° C, but
readings of up to 54° C are common. The heat becomes intense
shortly after sunrise and lasts until sunset, followed by comparatively
cool nights. In the winter, the temperature seldom drops below 0°
C, but the almost total absence of humidity and the high wind-chill
factor make a bitterly cold atmosphere. In the spring and autumn,
temperatures average 29° C.
The region of Asir is subject to Indian Ocean monsoons, usually
occurring between October and March. An average of 300 millimeters
of rainfall occurs during this period--60 percent of the annual
total. Additionally, in Asir and the southern Hijaz condensation
caused by the higher mountain slopes contributes to the total rainfall.
For the rest of the country, rainfall is low and erratic. The entire
year's rainfall may consist of one or two torrential outbursts that
flood the wadis and then rapidly disappear into the soil to be trapped
above the layers of impervious rock. This is sufficient, however,
to sustain forage growth. Although the average rainfall is 100 millimeters
per year, whole regions may not experience rainfall for several
years. When such droughts occur, as they did in the north in 1957
and 1958, affected areas may become incapable of sustaining either
livestock or agriculture.
Data as of December 1992
Saudi Arabia
The Environment and the 1991 Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War of 1991 brought serious environmental damage
to the region. The world's largest oil spill, estimated at as much
as 8 million barrels, fouled gulf waters and the coastal areas of
Kuwait, Iran, and much of Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf shoreline.
In some of the sections of the Saudi coast that sustained the worst
damage, sediments were found to contain 7 percent oil. The shallow
areas affected normally provide feeding grounds for birds, and feeding
and nursery areas for fish and shrimp. Because the plants and animals
of the seafloor are the basis of the food chain, damage to the shoreline
has consequences for the whole shallow-water ecosystem, including
the multimillion-dollar Saudi fisheries industry.
The spill had a severe impact on the coastal area surrounding Madinat
al Jubayl as Sinaiyah, the major industrial and population center
newly planned and built by the Saudi government. The spill threatened
industrial facilities in Al Jubayl because of the seawater cooling
system for primary industries and threatened the supply of potable
water produced by seawater-fed desalination plants. The Al Jubayl
community harbor and Abu Ali Island, which juts into the gulf immediately
north of Al Jubayl, experienced the greatest pollution, with the
main effect of the spill concentrated in mangrove areas and shrimp
grounds. Large numbers of marine birds, such as cormorants, grebes,
and auks, were killed when their plumage was coated with oil. In
addition, beaches along the entire Al Jubayl coastline were covered
with oil and tar balls.
The exploding and burning of approximately 700 oil wells in Kuwait
also created staggering levels of atmospheric pollution, spewed
oily soot into the surrounding areas, and produced lakes of oil
in the Kuwaiti desert equal in volume to twenty times the amount
of oil that poured into the gulf, or about 150 million barrels.
The soot from the Kuwaiti fires was found in the snows of the Himalayas
and in rainfall over the southern members of the Community of Independent
States, Iran (former Soviet Union), Oman, and Turkey. Residents
of Riyadh reported that cars and outdoor furniture were covered
daily with a coating of oily soot. The ultimate effects of the airborne
pollution from the burning wells have yet to be determined, but
samples of soil and vegetation in Ras al Khafji in northern Saudi
Arabia revealed high levels of particles of oily soot incorporated
into the desert ecology. The UN Environmental Programme warned that
eating livestock that grazed within an area of 7,000 square kilometers
of the fires, or 1,100 kilometers from the center of the fires,
an area that included northern Saudi Arabia, posed a danger to human
health. The overall effects of the oil spill and the oil fires on
marine life, human health, water quality, and vegetation remained
to be determined as of 1992. Moreover, to these two major sources
of environmental damage must be added large quantities of refuse,
toxic materials, and between 173 million and 207 million liters
of untreated sewage in sand pits left behind by coalition forces.
Data as of December 1992
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