One hit won’t shut down the Gulf’s desalination system

Throughout the region, Associated facilities To water and energy– including desalination plants – were damaged or compromised as Iranian strikes expanded beyond traditional targets.

However, a single strike is unlikely to cut off the Gulf’s water supply. The system is designed to accommodate isolated disruptions, but sustained or multi-location attacks will begin to strain supplies much more quickly.

“In the Gulf region, desalination plants are being built with enough breathing room, so that missing one plant doesn’t immediately cause it to appear on tap,” says Rabih Rostom, professor of water and environmental engineering at Heriot-Watt University Dubai.

In Kuwait, Iranian drone attacks Two power and water desalination facilities were damaged facilities and ignited fires at two oil sites. Other locations, including Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, have been identified as potentially at risk.

“Striking desalination plants would be a strategic move, but it could also come close to, and in some cases exceed, the red line,” says Andreas Krieg, senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London.

Craig explains that water infrastructure occupies a distinct category. “Water infrastructure is not just another utility. In places that rely on desalination, it supports civilian survival, public health, hospital functioning, sanitation, and basic state legitimacy.”

Craig points out that international humanitarian law grants special protection to civilian objects and objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. “This is exactly why attacks on water systems carry such serious legal and moral weight,” Craig adds.

These incidents highlight a structural reality: desalination is essential to the Gulf’s water supply, and water outages carry immediate impacts on daily life.

How does the system absorb disturbance?

At first glance, desalination seems weak. Factory closed, supply reduced. In practice, the system is designed with layers of redundancy.

Factories operate across multiple locations, allowing production to be reallocated if one facility slows down. Water is also stored at various points throughout the network, including central tanks and building-level tanks, creating a buffer that delays outages.

“The region’s water supply is diversified thanks to a network of numerous facilities distributed along the coast,” according to a statement from Veolia to WIRED Middle East, an environmental services company whose technologies account for approximately 19 percent of the region’s desalination capacity.

The company adds that the distribution systems are interconnected, allowing stations to “support and replace each other when necessary,” which helps maintain continuity of service.

Veolia says storage capacity in the UAE typically covers about one week, while in other parts of the region it may be limited to two or three days.

In practice, this means that the system can accommodate disturbances for a limited time. Once reserves are exhausted, water supplies depend on whether plants are able to continue producing enough water to meet demand.

The system that produces water

Unlike most regions, the Gulf does not depend on rivers or rainfall. It relies on a network of desalination plants along its coast, which continuously transform seawater into drinkable water.

Seawater is drawn into processing facilities, then filtered and treated either through reverse osmosis – forcing it to pass through membranes to remove salt and impurities – or through thermal methods that evaporate and condense the water. The resulting supplies are distributed via pipelines, stored in tanks, and delivered to homes, hospitals and industry.

This is not a flexible system. They are designed to operate continuously, producing water on a scale that supports cities, industrial activity and basic services. The Gulf countries produce approximately 40 percent of Desalinated water in the worldIt operates more than 400 factories across the region.

Adoption varies by country but is high everywhere. In the United Arab Emirates, desalination represents between 41 and 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 the disturbance becomes visible

For residents, they will not feel the disturbance immediately, as the water will continue to flow.

Rostom explains that the buildings are supported by internal storage and pumping systems, which means early changes in supply may not be obvious. In many cases, the water pressure remains constant, even with the wider system setting.