That Saudi Arabia is a water-scarce nation should surprise no one. The largest country on the Arabian Peninsula is mostly barren desert, save slightly wetter parts in the east. It is a fact that the kingdom has coped with since its inception after World War I, and something the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula had learned to live with for centuries. However, continued overuse during the second half of the previous century and mounting demographic and economic pressures of the coming decades have pushed Saudi water supplies to their breaking point. Nothing in the Desert? Minimal surface water across most of the country forces the large and growing Saudi population to rely on groundwater. The water is only enough to provide 76 cubic meters (about 20,000 gallons) per person per year, far below the generally accepted 500 cubic meters per person per year of absolute scarcity.