The kingdom of Saudi Arabia attempts to guarantee its water security
The article is dedicated to the problem of water supply for the population and economy of Saudi Arabia - one of the largest countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The long time experience that Saudi Arabia possesses in using various water resources deserves focused attention for at least one reason: the country has implemented vast projects in water management including construction of water desalting plants and assistant power assets, complex irrigation and wastewater reuse systems etc. The article contains a vast number of evaluations of various aspects of the country's water management within several decades, of the goals and efficiency of the state policy in this critically important field, perspectives of solving the vexed problems of the present, and aspects of international cooperation. One should stress that Saudi Arabia being one of the largest countries of the world and having average population, possesses limited resources of fresh water. Being one of the most urbanized countries of the world and therefore having high and steadily growing demand for water from population and urban industry, Saudi Arabia has unfavorable structure of water supplies and imbalanced liquid consumption. These and other factors including factors of international origin, predetermine the features of the state policy in water management, goals and tasks of development of international cooperation in securing water safety of the country