Qatar withdrew 236% of its renewable freshwater in 2023 on its own national reporting, and 431% on the UN and FAO compilation for the same year. Both are far above the 25% level at which FAO calls a country water-stressed, but the gap between them is large enough to change any comparison with Gulf neighbours.
How many people?
The National Planning Council put Qatar's mid-2024 population at 3,143,491; the World Bank's estimate is 2,857,822, about 286,000 fewer. KAHRAMAA, the national water utility, uses a third base, 3,085,087 for 2023. Every per-person water figure moves with the choice.
How much storage?
KAHRAMAA's 2023 statistics report gives total storage of 2,417 million imperial gallons. Its review of 2025, reported in May 2026, gives 2,924 million gallons and describes 15 concrete reservoirs of 100 million gallons each, a combination the report of that review does not reconcile.
How much wastewater is reused?
Ashghal, the public works authority, reports treating and reusing 98% of wastewater, and the national development strategy cites 99.7%. The council's own volumes, 196 million cubic metres reused out of 283 million collected in 2023, give about 69%.
How far has smart metering gone?
KAHRAMAA had installed 460,000 smart water meters by mid-2025, close to its 459,600 water customers in 2024, and an October 2025 newspaper editorial put coverage at 98%. Yet KAHRAMAA's target for completing water meters is the end of 2027.
The full report examines what this article does not: which figures carry the most weight for planning, how far groundwater is drawn beyond its safe yield, whether desalination capacity stays ahead of demand to 2029, and what Qatar's water law requires as its compliance period ends. The full report, Qatar Water Intelligence Report, is available for USD 999 at https://ourfuturewaterintelligence.com/reports/qatar-water-intelligence-report. For a free overview, see https://ourfuturewaterintelligence.com/countries/qatar.