​The household drinking water sources have increased with a change rate of 24.3% during the period between 2003 and 2004. The increasing number of population resulted in an increasing demand on the services provided for them including the drinking water equipment; according the "Drinkg Water Sources and Household Water" Study issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). The demand of using the Public Network of Drinking Water increased in the censuses conducted in 2003 and 2010 with a change rate of 0.76%. The use of bottled water also increased with 1.81%; while the change rate in the governmental water points reached 0.5%. The change rate of the remaining sources in household water usages has decreased in the two consensuses. The usages of the wells outside houses have slightly decreased by a change rate of – 0.54%. The usages of the Aflaj have also decreased by – 0.34%; while the usages of private well have decreased by – 0.05%. The public water network has been used by the highest percentage of drinking water users in urban areas (about 41%) of the users. The same applies to the household water sources. The public network was the most used source of drinking water or household usages in the different kinds of residential units by constituting 37.4% and 52.7% respectively. The Omanis and expatriates also use the public water network as a source of drinking water with a rate of 51.4% and 55.7% respectively. ​The results of the study have showed that 53% of the Sultanate's population uses the governmental network as a source of household water; while 21% of the poulaion depend on the wells; which include the private wells with 11% and the wells outside the house with 10%. The public water points constitute the third source for getting the household water with 20%. The drinking water sources that use public pipes connected to the houses come on top of the drinking water sources used in the governorates and wilayats of the Sultanate. About 37.4 of the total persons who benefit from the drinking water in the Sultanate use such sources. This indicates the governmental attention to provide secure healthy water for the citizens and the easy accesss to it.  The study demonstrated that the bottled water came second on the list of drinking water in the Sultanate with about 24%. The public water points came in the second position with 22.8% of the total drinking water users at the Sultanate's level. Other water sources come in next positions like the wells outside the houses that reached 6.6% and the private wells that reached 3.7%. Despite the governmental efforts exerted to provide healthy household water for all the population, the terrain; dry atmosphere and the lack of surface and underground water resources made a lot of localities in the Sultanate obtain their household water from different sources. Pursuant to the data of the 2010 consensus, 5% of the Sultanate's population relies on unclassified water sources. The rate increases to more than 6% if the the other sources are added to it. This raises concern because not knowing the source of water may cause a lot of health problems for the population particularly if the water includes organic and chemical pollutants. The Sultanate's population tends to use the bottled water with 24%. Bottled water comes first on the list of used water sources in Muscat Governorate with 39%. The use of bottled water has its economic and environmental effects on the communities. They constitute a burden for the budget of families. In addition, disposing of plastic bottles in which water is bottled; labels and inks pose great risks for the environment. Despite the spread of the Aflaj system that constitutes an important part of the Omani communities, they are used by 0.6% of the population only as a source for providing the household water. It is worth noting that the Sultanate has two main water sources including the conventional water resources and the non-conventional water resources. The conventional water resources include the surface and underground water; which constitute 84% of the water resources; while the non-conventional water includes the desalination water and the treated wastewater that constitute about 16% of the total water resources. The average total amount of rainfall in the Sultanate is estimated to be about 9.5 billion cubic meters annually about 80% of which evaporates. The annual average of water flow in the valleys of the Sultanate is estimated to be about 211 million square meters. Fresh underground water contributes with about 85% of the Sultanate's water resources. The aflaj produces about 680 million cubic meters of water annually. The Sultanate contains about 68 water springs and 167 thousand wells. The storage capacity of semi-saline unground water reaches 23.5 billion cubic meters; while the storage capacity of ponds and basins reaches 78 thousand cubic meters. Since its establishment, dams retained about 997 million cubic meters of water; which is equivalent to 78% of the total annual underground feeding quantity in the Sultanate that reaches 1.3 billion cubic meters. In the non-conventional resources; the total number of desalination plants in the Sultanate reached 94 plants including 47 sea water deslination plants and 47 plants for desalinating the saline water. These plants produce 197 million cubic meters annually. The Sultanate has also 360 wastewater treatement plants at the different across the Sultanate with a production capacity ranging between 20 – 25 thousand cubic meters daily. It is clear that the current water resources could not meet the future demand and that the Sultanate will virtually face a water crisis that could not be overcome except with double efforts.