As conflict rages in the Gulf, many are focussed on oil – but water is also a major concern

The fast-expanding war between the United States, Israel, and Iran has captured global attention largely because it is disrupting oil and gas supplies from the Persian Gulf. Yet another resource is now emerging as far more critical to the survival of the region’s societies. Water. Recent attacks and near misses involving desalination plants in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iran have exposed an uncomfortable reality. The Gulf states are not only energy exporters but also water dependent societies whose survival rests on a fragile network of coastal desalination facilities.

For decades the Gulf monarchies invested enormous wealth from oil into building desalination infrastructure that could sustain life in one of the driest regions on earth. Natural freshwater is almost nonexistent across much of the Arabian Peninsula. Rainfall is sparse and irregular, rivers are virtually absent, and groundwater reserves have been heavily depleted through decades of extraction. Desalination therefore became the technological solution that allowed desert cities such as Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh to grow into global urban hubs. Oil and gas built the Gulf economies, but desalinated seawater sustains the populations that inhabit them.

Today the scale of this dependence is staggering. Hundreds of desalination plants line the shores of the Persian...

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