By John — Desalination News
Saudi Arabia’s desalinated water production capacity has climbed to 16 million cubic meters a day as of the end of 2025, up from 4.6 million cubic meters a day in 2016, a 247.8 percent increase over the decade that cements the Kingdom’s position as the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, according to figures tied to Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Program.
The growth has come in stages: capacity stood at 5.9 million cubic meters a day as recently as 2020 before accelerating sharply in the years since, as the Saudi Water Authority and its affiliated entities pushed forward a wave of new independent water projects. More than 40 seawater desalination facilities now operate across the Kingdom, serving upwards of 27 million people through a distribution network that has grown to 3.7 million meters of pipeline, more than 1.5 million cubic meters of storage capacity, and pumping infrastructure capable of moving over 2 million cubic meters a day.
The expansion has been underpinned by heavy investment. Total spending across Saudi Arabia’s water value chain has exceeded $64 billion, with more than $56 billion of that coming from the private sector under the Kingdom’s independent water project model, and Saudi Water Partnership Company-backed water projects alone accounting for more than SAR45 billion. Across the water sector as a whole, more than 1,780 projects are underway, and independent water projects now under development carry a combined capacity of 4.16 million cubic meters a day.
A parallel focus on efficiency has accompanied the capacity growth: Saudi Arabia says energy consumption per unit of water produced has fallen 85 percent between 2016 and 2025. The Shuaiba Phase 5 plant is cited as a record-setter on this front, producing 664,000 cubic meters a day at an overall energy intensity of 2.34 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter, dropping to as low as 1.7 kilowatt-hours during the reverse osmosis salt-separation stage specifically — a conversion from older thermal technology that is credited with delivering roughly SAR4.1 billion in financial benefit in 2025 alone. The Al-Khobar Phase II plant, meanwhile, has set a production record of 670,852.4 cubic meters a day on a comparatively small land footprint. Other major facilities in the pipeline include Jubail 3A, at 600,000 cubic meters a day and a cost of SAR2.4 billion, and Jubail 3B, at 570,000 cubic meters a day, connected onward by a 603-kilometre pipeline to Buraydah with a transport capacity of 650,000 cubic meters a day.
State-linked and private developers dominate the sector’s largest players: ACWA Power, Marafiq, SWCC and SWPC lead a top-ten list of Saudi water companies that also includes Veolia, ENGIE, Marubeni, AlJomaih Water & Energy, TAQA and Acciona. Saudi authorities have also opened the Rabigh Oasis research facility, described as the world’s largest dedicated water research center at more than 33,000 square meters, aimed at sustaining technical progress in the sector.
Officials attribute the sustained build-out to population growth, urbanization, industrial expansion, tourism and the broader infrastructure demands of Vision 2030 megaprojects, all of which continue to push water demand higher across the Kingdom even as efficiency gains partially offset the energy cost of meeting it.
(Source: Arab News) (Source: Spherical Insights)