Riyadh distributed an average of about 2.72 million m³ of water a day in 2024. The region's strategic storage, last reported at 6.8 million m³ in December 2019, equals about 2.5 days of that flow. The national target is seven days by 2030.
A city supplied from the coast
Desalinated seawater made up 77.5% of the 994.5 million m³ distributed to Riyadh City in 2024, and groundwater the rest; there is no surface water in the supply. Transmission projects completed in 2019 lifted supply to Riyadh to more than 3 million m³ a day. On an average day in 2024 the city used most of that.
What is being added
The Riyadh–Qassim transmission pipeline, with capacity of 685,000 m³ a day, includes six storage tanks in Riyadh totalling 1.02 million m³, about 0.4 days of 2024 average distribution. Its preferred bidder was named on 23 December 2025 and operation is expected in Q2 2030, but no financial close had been reported by 26 October 2026.
Upstream, the Saudi Water Authority is expanding the Jubail and Ras Al-Khair desalination systems by 2.5 million m³ a day. The four projects were still under construction when inspected on 5 August 2026.
The local reserve
Groundwater is Riyadh's fallback. The region's eight large groundwater treatment stations have a design capacity of 940,000 m³ a day and averaged 700,500 m³ a day in 2024, leaving about 239,500 m³ a day unused. That reserve shares aquifers with farming, whose estimated draw on non-renewable groundwater in the region was about 1.9 times the city's total urban supply in 2024.
How fast is Riyadh's demand growing, and what does the 2027 tariff change? Who operates the city's networks and plants, and on what contracts? How much treated wastewater is reused? The full report answers these questions.
The full report, Riyadh Water Intelligence Report, is available for USD 799 at https://ourfuturewaterintelligence.com/reports/riyadh-water-intelligence-report. For a free overview, see https://ourfuturewaterintelligence.com/cities/riyadh.