across the region, closed devices for water and power– including desalination plants – have been destroyed or put at risk as Iran’s strikes extend beyond traditional targets.
A single strike, however, is unlikely to cut off the water supply in the bay. The system is designed to absorb isolated disruptions, but sustained or multi-site attacks would begin to disrupt distribution more quickly.
“In the Gulf, desalination is built with enough breathing room that the loss of one plant is not immediately visible in the pipe,” says Rabee Rustum, professor of water and environmental engineering at Heriot-Watt University Dubai.
In Kuwait, Iranian drone attacks they have destroyed two powers and removed the salt equipment and start a fire in two fuel areas. Other sites, including Fujairah in the UAE, have been identified as potentially vulnerable.
“Interesting desalination plants would be a strategic step, but they would also come very close to, and sometimes cross, the red line,” says Andreas Krieg, senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London.
Water infrastructure, Krieg explains, takes different forms. “Water infrastructure is not just another service. In areas that depend on desalination, it underpins the lives of citizens, public health, hospital performance, sanitation, and the basic legitimacy of government.”
Krieg notes that international humanitarian law provides special protection for civilian objects and for objects essential to civilian life. “This is exactly why attacks on water systems carry so much legal and ethical weight,” Krieg adds.
The incidents highlight a structural reality: Desalination is central to the bay’s water supply, and disruptions carry immediate consequences for daily life.
How the System Handles Disruption
At first glance, desalination seems dangerous. Shut down the plant, and the supply is reduced. In practice, the system is made up of layers of redundancy.
Plants operate in multiple locations, allowing crops to be redistributed if one facility goes down. Water is also stored in different parts of the network, including central reservoirs and building-level tanks, creating a buffer that delays disruptions.
According to a statement to WIRED Middle East by Veolia, an environmental services provider whose technology accounts for about 19 percent of the region’s desalination capacity, “water supply in the region is heterogeneous due to a network of multiple facilities distributed along the coast.”
The company adds that distribution systems are integrated, allowing plants to “support and interchange when necessary,” helping to maintain continuity of service.
In the UAE, storage capacity usually lasts around a week, while in other parts of the region it can be two to three days, Veolia says.
In practice, this means that the system can absorb disturbances for a short period of time. Once reservoirs are depleted, water supply depends on whether plants can continue to produce enough water to meet demand.
Water Generating System
Unlike many regions, the Gulf is not dependent on rivers or rain. It relies on a network of desalination plants on its shores that continuously convert seawater into potable water.
Seawater is drawn into treatment facilities, filtered and processed either through reverse osmosis—it forces it through a membrane to remove salts and impurities—or through thermal processes that evaporate and condense the water. The resulting supply is distributed through pipelines, stored in reservoirs, and taken to homes, hospitals and factories.
This is not a flexible system. It is designed to work continuously, producing water at a level that sustains cities, industrial activities and essential services. Gulf States produce about 40 percent of salted water in the worldoperating over 400 plants across the region.
Dependency varies by country but is high everywhere. In the UAE, desalination accounts for 41 to 42 percent of the total water supply, while in Kuwait, it provides about 90 percent of drinking water, and in Saudi Arabia, about 70 percent.
When Trouble Appears
For residents, the disruption would not be immediately apparent—the water would continue to flow.
Rustum explains that the buildings are supported by internal storage and pumping systems, meaning that early changes in supply may not be noticeable. In most cases, water pressure remains constant, even as the wider system changes.
