The Arabian Aquifer System is mainly found in Saudi Arabia but also extends into Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen.

Beginning in the 1980s, Saudi Arabia's fast growth in agriculture, supported by government help and financial aid, caused a large increase in water being taken from the aquifers in the system, many of which cannot be replenished. In 1995, about 15.2 km of water was removed from the aquifer each year. By 2004, many natural springs in the area had dried up, and the aquifers had become salty. According to data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite (2003–2013), analyzed in a study led by the University of California, Irvine, published in Water Resources Research on June 16, 2015, 60 million people rely on this aquifer for water, and it is the most overused aquifer system globally. The Saudi agricultural sector was shut down after using four-fifths of its aquifers, which led Saudi Arabia to search for less dry areas in other places, such as Ethiopia, causing water conflicts as a result.