Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf region use the fossil fuels under their desert lands not only to make money, but . The petroleum they produce powers , which turn seawater into drinkable water.

In the war that began on Feb. 28, 2026, with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, retaliatory attacks from Iranian forces have and and . Those attacks all hurt Gulf nations’ economies and their hard-won reputations for safety and stability.

But to a key desalination plant in Dubai. Iranian strikes on March 2 on hit about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away from a massive complex with that are key to the city’s production of more than 160 billion gallons of water each year.

And there has already been damage to the and at . In both cases, the damage seems to have stemmed from attacks on nearby ports or from falling debris from drone interceptions.

The internal workings of desalination plants can be massive and very complex.

Saltwater kingdoms

The region’s monarchies are often described as , but they have also become what I call , global superpowers in the drawn from the sea. Desalination is part of the reason there are , fountains, and even with manufactured snow.

All together, are in the Arabian Peninsula. Israel’s two Sorek plants round out the list.

The countries of the Arabian Peninsula have about . And plants close to Iran, around the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, produce of the world’s desalinated water.

in the Gulf region rely on desalination plants for their water. Without them, in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE – or , including its capital, Riyadh.

A massive indoor ski area in Dubai is just one of the ways Gulf nations use desalinated water.

Sabotage of water supplies

on Gulf region desalination plants date back to the 1980s. During Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, those worries became real.

After coalition forces began bombing Iraqi positions in January 1991, part of Iraqi troops’ response was to release into the Persian Gulf. As the massive oil slick drifted south, U.S. and Saudi officials feared it was meant to .

Workers installed at major plants, especially the one that supplies much of Riyadh’s water. In Kuwait, Iraqi sabotage damaged or destroyed much of the .

Kuwaiti authorities also turned to to supply some 750 water tankers and 200 trucks to import an 18-ton emergency supply of bottled water. U.S.-supplied generators and mobile desalination units provided additional temporary relief, though the full recovery took years.

Oil washes up on a Persian Gulf beach near a Saudi desalination plant in late January 1991.

More recent threats

Fears of attacks on desalination plants resurfaced after Yemen’s Houthi movement launched drones and missiles at Saudi facilities at Al-Shuqaiq in and – though they did no lasting damage.

Iran’s weapons are far more numerous and sophisticated than the Houthis’, though, so if it attacked desalination plants, the damage could be significant.

There is an irony here: Iran’s capital city of Tehran has a so serious that in 2025 the government reportedly considered . But Iran is , because its water supply relies instead on .

Whatever else , water could well become a major factor in the violence and leave lasting political scars. And if either side were to intentionally attack water sources or desalination plants, it would clearly be .

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