Oman Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

limited natural freshwater resources; high levels of soil and water salinity in the coastal plains; beach pollution from oil spills; industrial effluents seeping into the water tables and aquifers; desertificaiton due to high winds driving desert sand into arable lands

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

dry desert; hot, humid along coast; hot, dry interior; strong southwest summer monsoon (May to September) in far south

Land use

agricultural land: 4.7% (2018 est.)

arable land: 0.1% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.1% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 4.5% (2018 est.)

forest: 0% (2018 est.)

other: 95.3% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 88.4% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 2.32% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Revenue from forest resources

0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 34.88 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 63.46 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 5.6 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 1,734,885 tons (2014 est.)

Major aquifers

Arabian Aquifer System

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 130 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 240 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 1.55 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

1.4 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)