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''This article was written in 2007 and has last been partially updated in March 2015. However, some sections of the article may be out of date, for example if the data and information found in sources are from an older date.'' Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia is characterized by significant investments in seawater desalination, water distribution, sewerage and wastewater treatment leading to a substantial increase in access to drinking water and sanitation over the past decades. About 50% of drinking water comes from desalination, 40% from the mining of non-renewable groundwater and 10% from surface water, especially in the mountainous South-West of the country. The capital Riyadh, located in the heart of the country, is supplied with desalinated water pumped from the Persian Gulf over a distance of 467 km. Given the substantial oil wealth, water is provided almost for free. Despite improvements service quality remains poor. For example, in Riyadh water was available only once every 2.5 days in 2011, while in Jeddah it is available only every 9 days.〔 Institutional capacity and governance in the sector are weak, reflecting general characteristics of the public sector in Saudi Arabia. Since 2000, the government has increasingly relied on the private sector to operate water and sanitation infrastructure, beginning with desalination and wastewater treatment plants. Since 2008, the operation of urban water distribution systems is being gradually delegated to private companies as well. ==Access== There are no reliable and up-to-date data on access to drinking water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia. According to the WHO, the latest reliable source is the 1993 census. It indicates that in urban areas, where 88% of the population lives, 97% had access to drinking water from house connections and 100% had access to improved sanitation. Urban sanitation was primarily through on-site solutions and only 43% of the urban population was connected to sewers. In rural areas, however, only 63% had access to an improved source of water supply. There are no reliable figures on access to sanitation in rural areas.〔WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program. (Water ) and ( Sanitation )〕 However, according to a 2004 study of Elie Elhadj from the School of Oriental and African Studies "one half of Saudi householders still have no municipal water connections and two thirds are without sanitation connections". Also, Saudi cities have no rainwater drainage systems to deal with the brief and occasional, but severe deluges of winters.〔Elie Elhadj:(Household water and sanitation services in Saudi Arabia: an analysis of economic, political and ecological issues ), Occasional Paper 56, SOAS/KCL Water Research Group, School of Oriental & African Studies and King's College London, University of London, May 2004〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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