On 8 March, Tehran claimed that the United States had bombed an Iranian desalination plant in Qeshm island, leading to water shortages in 30 Iranian villages.
Washington denied any involvement in the attacks. Afterwards, however, Bahrain accused Iran of attacking Bahraini desalination plants. A desalination plant in Kuwait was also damaged, probably by the wreckage of an intercepted drone or missile.
Iran denied any involvement in these attacks on Arab desalination plants, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi posted on social media that “the US set this precedent, not Iran.”
No matter who the attackers and victims are, targeting water desalination plants is a violation of the 1949 UN Geneva Conventions, which establish the legal and moral standards for humanitarian actions during military conflicts.
The Arab Gulf states, mostly desert, depend on water desalination for nearly 90 per cent of their water supplies. Kuwait has the highest per capita water consumption in the world, and according to 2022 statistics the UAE depends on desalination for 42 per cent of its drinking water, Kuwait for 90 per cent, Oman for 96 per cent, and Saudi Arabia for 70 per cent.
Saudi Arabia has the Red Sea coast which it can use for desalination plants if the Gulf shore becomes unusable. Iran is less dependent on desalination plants than the Arab Gulf states, since it has more rivers and underground water.
There has not been a crisis in water supplies in the Arab Gulf states because of the war thus far. Nevertheless, the situation is highly dangerous, especially since the majority of land in the Arab Gulf states is desert with very little rainfall.
Of the world’s nearly 18,000 desalination plants, nearly one-third are located in the Middle East, with 2,382 facilities in Saudi Arabia alone. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, 83 per cent of the population already faces water scarcity, according to the US Mother Jones magazine.
The risk of a possible water crisis caused by the war on Iran has also highlighted the risk of depending on fossil fuels to generate energy for desalination plants in the region. Almost all the Middle East’s desalination plants are powered by fossil fuels, with 93 per cent of the electricity needed coming from natural gas and six per cent from oil.
Some countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have recently started to use renewable energy for their desalination plants.
In case of damage to the plants, it could take months or even years to fix them and building new ones could take years. The Arab Gulf states have strategic water reserves in case of a crisis, but these reserves would last for only a few days, and the Gulf governments might have to resort to water rationing.
It is not just the Gulf’s water supplies that are potentially in danger because of the war, however. Food supplies are also in possible danger.
The Arab Gulf states import 80 to 90 per cent of their food, and 70 per cent of this food passes through the Strait of Hormuz. With the closure of the strait, they have seen a significant decline in food imports. Dozens of container vessels are stuck around the Strait of Hormuz, and many of them are carrying millions of dollars of food supplies, including fruit and vegetables, which might be perishable and could expire if not unloaded soon.
Iran has also been bombing important Gulf ports, such as Jebal Ali in Dubai, which is necessary for food imports and is also close to desalination plants. The Gulf states have silos to store cereals for a few months, and they have food reserves that can last for a few months. But if the war goes on, then a food crisis will be imminent.
The war might also cause a global food crisis, since the Arab Gulf states produce about a third of the world’s urea and a quarter of the world’s ammonia, both of which are vital ingredients in the manufacture of fertilisers necessary for agriculture and are biproducts of natural gas production.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has therefore led to a shortage in global urea and ammonia supplies and a rise in costs, potentially leading to a global crop shortage.
The price of urea has risen from $487 per ton before the war to about $700 per ton at the time of writing. “This is a regional conflict with global implications, and it goes straight into the food system,” said Tore Holsether, CEO of Norway’s Yara International, a major producer of fertilisers.
According to Fadel Al-Zoby, former head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) mission in Iraq and a global expert on food security, there are alternative food supply routes which could partially replace the Strait of Hormuz.
Turkey could play a role in establishing a food corridor, like it did during the early months of the Russian war on Ukraine, for example. Egypt could also potentially become an alternative route through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
However, Al-Zoby said that these alternative routes would only partially solve the problem and could not fully replace the Strait of Hormuz as a main route for food and fertiliser supplies to the Gulf and the rest of the world.
The costs of transportation through these alternative routes would also be much higher, and companies would probably pass these costs to consumers in the form of higher prices.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 March, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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