RT.com
30 Mar 2026, 18:36 GMT+10
The US-Israeli war on Iran risks a region-wide freshwater crisis if desalination infrastructure is compromised
Kuwait has accused Iran of carrying out a "heinous attack" on one of its combined power and desalination plants on Sunday. Like much of the Middle East, the nationdependsheavily on industrial production to meet its freshwater needs.
The purported Iranian strike killed one worker - an Indian national - and caused extensive damage to a service building, according to Fatima Abbas Jawhar Hayat, spokeswoman for Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy.
The authorities have not disclosed which facility was struck or whether electricity or water production has been disrupted. The spokeswoman said emergency teams are still assessing the damage and urged residents to ignore speculation.
Tehran has not responded to the accusations. However, Iranian media reported a fire at the Sabiya Power Plant detected by NASA satellites, mistakenly identifying it as the Doha West facility - another combined power and desalination plant located roughly 50 km away.
Kuwait operates six government-owned thermal plants that produce both electricity and desalinated water.
The Sabiya plant, launched in 1998 and expanded multiple times, with the most recent upgrade announced last year, generates about 5,300 megawatts of electricity per hour and produces roughly 340,000 cubic meters of water daily, according to official data.
For comparison, the country's largest single water producer, the Al-Zour South plant, has a capacity of about 670,000 cubic meters per day.
Water scarcity is a defining challenge across the region, but Kuwait is particularly constrained. According to UN data, it has access to just 4 cubic meters of naturally renewable freshwater per person annually - compared to 296 cubic meters in relatively water-rich Oman.
Modern living standards require around 1,700 cubic meters per person each year, accounting for all needs from quenching thirst to growing food.
Desalination supplies a large share of drinking water - ranging from about 42% in the UAE to nearly 99% in Qatar. Industrial operations such as data centers and petrochemical facilities further drive demand.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries began heavily investing in desalination after the 1979 oil crisis created a significant surplus of wealth. While thermal desalination remains important, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) - which uses membranes to remove salt - has become the dominant technology.
Today, more than 3,400 desalination plants operate across the Gulf, producing over 22 million cubic meters of water daily - about one-third of global capacity, according to a study published in Nature Clean Water in January.
The region's reliance on desalination, combined with limited water storage - especially in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar - makes these systems highly sensitive to disruption. Major damage can quickly escalate into a humanitarian emergency.
The US-Israeli regime change war against Iran has already seen incidents affecting critical infrastructure. Debris from intercepted Iranian drones and missiles reportedly caused unintended damage at the UAE's Fujairah F1 plant and Kuwait's Doha West facility.
Iran has also accused the US of striking its desalination plant on Qeshm Island, saying the attack threatened water supplies for 30 villages. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called it a precedent and "a dangerous move with grave consequences."
The following day, Bahrain reported that an Iranian drone hit one of its desalination sites, though water production was not affected.
The incidentscoincidedwith a major emergency in Tehran after Israeli strikes hit oil storage sites. Residents in the Iranian capital reported breathing difficulties due to toxic smoke, while environmental groups also raised concerns about potential groundwater contamination.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to obliterate Iranian civilian infrastructure, including water plants, as he claims to be seeking a negotiated capitulation of Tehran.
During the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi forces damaged Kuwaiti water facilities before being driven out by US-led forces. Offshore oil spills - believed to have been deliberate - also threatened filtration desalination intake systems, which are more vulnerable to pollutants than their thermal counterparts. Kuwait was forced to impose water rationing and import supplies.
In Yemen, Saudi-led military operations in the 2010s included strikes on desalination facilities. Meanwhile,Iran-alignedHouthi forces targeted Saudi plants with missile attacks in 2019 and 2022.
More recently, Israel's military campaign in Gaza following the 2023 Hamas attack caused widespread damage to civilian infrastructure, including desalination systems.
(RT.com)
Get a daily dose of Iran Herald news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Iran Herald.
More InformationCAMBRIDGE, U.K.: AstraZeneca's experimental drug tozorakimab has shown promising results in late-stage trials, reducing flare-ups in...
DUBLIN, Ireland: Sky TV Ireland will receive the names and addresses of more than 300 dodgy box users in its continuing efforts to...
TOKYO, Japan: SoftBank Group has secured a US$40 billion loan through a bridge facility to support further investment in OpenAI, and...
BASEL, Switzerland: Swiss drugmaker Novartis has agreed to acquire California-based biotech firm Excellergy in a deal worth up to US$2...
FRANKFURT, Germany: Germany's Henkel has agreed to acquire Nasdaq-listed hair care brand Olaplex for $1.4 billion, aiming to expand...
ZAGREB, Croatia: Uber Technologies has teamed up with Pony.ai and Croatian startup Verne to launch what the companies say will be Europe's...
(CNN) - A Lebanese reporter working for a Hezbollah-owned television network was among three journalists killed in an Israeli strike...
SEOUL/YOKOHAMA: The war in the Middle East is disrupting Asia's used-car trade, leaving shipments stranded, delaying deliveries, and...
For decades, the United States moved from covert assassination plots to openly embracing assassination or targeted killing as policy....
The US-Israeli war on Iran risks a region-wide freshwater crisis if desalination infrastructure is compromised Kuwait has accused...
ABU DHABI, 30th March, 2026 (WAM) -- UAE beekeepers have won 29 prestigious awards at the Paris International Honey Awards 2026 (PIHA),...
New Delhi [India], March 30 (ANI): The ongoing conflict in West Asia could shave around one percentage point off India's economic growth...
