Iran Attacks Kuwaiti Desalination Plant, Bringing Gulf Water Supplies Into Focus

Just three days into Operation Epic Fury, we pointed out what may be the more consequential second-order risk, arguably even more important than the risk of data centers getting bombed (identified a month earlier): Are desalination plants the next targets in the U.S.-Iran war?

Not even a week after we raised that question, the first worst-case scenario emerged. On March 8, one week into the conflict, an Iranian attack drone struck a water desalination plant in Bahrain.

Fast forward to Friday morning, on the conflict’s 35th day: Kuwaiti authorities claimed Iranian forces targeted a power and desalination plant, sounding even more alarm bells that civilian infrastructure is increasingly moving into the crosshairs.

Bloomberg quoted Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy as saying an Iranian strike damaged components of the water desalination plant.

This suggests Tehran has exposed the vulnerability of critical water infrastructure across a region that relies heavily on these facilities, which remove salt and impurities from seawater or brackish water for drinking water and other agricultural or industrial uses.

Al Jazeera’s Mohamed A. Hussein recently explained why Gulf states heavily rely on water desalination plants:

The Gulf states are deserts with no permanent rivers. While they lack rivers, they do have seasonal waterways called wadis, which carry water during rare rainfall. These nations rely primarily on groundwater and desalination to supply water to their rapidly growing cities, industrial zones and agricultural areas.

The map below shows just that:

Hussein noted:

The Gulf countries produce roughly 40 percent of the world’s desalinated water, operating more than 400 desalination plants along their coasts.

The reliance on desalination plants is extremely high across the Gulf:

Beyond the attack on Kuwait, Iranian forces also targeted Habshan, the UAE’s massive onshore gas-processing hub operated by ADNOC Gas in Abu Dhabi, forcing it to shut down operations.

The problem now, as the worst-case scenario emerges, is that if more Gulf desalination plants are damaged or taken offline, it could easily spark a humanitarian crisis.