Saudi Arabia's thirst for water is creating a toxic brine problem

Saudi Arabia's desalination plants produce about 31.5 million cubic metres of contaminated water each day

Saudi Arabia isn’t just the world’s top crude oil exporter. It’s also the biggest producer of a toxic effluent that’s the byproduct of slaking the desert kingdom’s thirst for water.

United Nations scientists warned Tuesday that desalination in Saudi Arabia and other countries is creating huge volumes of chemical-laced brine that risks contaminating food chains if left untreated. The problem is most acute in the Middle East and North Africa, which account for two-thirds of the world’s water contaminated by energy-intensive desalination plants.

“We have to address potentially severe downsides of desalination — the harm of brine and chemical pollution to the