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Missile debris has already damaged plants in Bahrain and Kuwait — and the Iranian army announced on March 21, 2026, that it plans to directly attack desalination plants and power stations in countries allied with the US in the Persian Gulf
As reported by IstoÉ Dinheiro, citing analyses from CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), missile or drone attacks against major water distribution centers “would pose a much greater risk” than any other target in the region.
The problem is simple and brutal: in countries like Qatar and Bahrain, over 90% of drinking water comes from desalination plants.
Without these plants, there is no water to drink, cook, or keep hospitals running.
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Furthermore, the entire region is home to around 3,400 desalination plants, many of them on the Gulf coast — just hundreds of kilometers from Iranian territory.
The threat that put the Gulf on alert: “We will only reopen the strait when they rebuild our plants”
The escalation began when the United States, under Donald Trump, threatened to destroy Iranian power plants in response to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s response was immediate. On March 21, 2026, the Iranian army publicly announced plans to attack power and desalination plants in the Gulf region as retaliation.
According to state broadcaster Irib, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard declared: “The passage would only be reopened when the plants destroyed by the US were rebuilt.”
Thus, water became a weapon of war — and desalination plants became strategic targets as important as oil refineries.
The damage that has already occurred: Bahrain, Kuwait, and global aluminum
Even before direct attacks on desalination plants, Iran had already demonstrated its capability to hit critical infrastructure in the region.
On March 12, 2026, Iranian attacks hit fuel depots in Bahrain, generating smoke so dense that authorities asked residents to stay indoors.
As reported by Correio Braziliense, during the same period Iranian drones set fire to the port of Salalah in Oman and hit the Shaybah oil field in Saudi Arabia.
In addition, Iran attacked aluminum factories in Bahrain (Aluminium Bahrain) and the United Arab Emirates (Emirates Global Aluminium), threatening 9% of the global aluminum supply.
Isolated damage to desalination plants in Bahrain and Kuwait was also reported, possibly caused by missile debris — but without official details on the extent or lost capacity.
When 90% of your water comes from a machine — and someone promises to destroy it
To understand the gravity, one must comprehend how much the region depends on desalination.
The Arabian Peninsula is one of the most arid areas on the planet. Rain is rare. Rivers are almost non-existent. Aquifers are depleting.
Consequently, countries like Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have built thousands of plants that transform salty seawater into drinking water.
In Qatar and Bahrain, these plants supply over 90% of all water consumed by the population.
Above all, these same plants also supply chemical industries and data processing centers that depend on water for cooling.
Destroying a single large-scale plant can be temporarily compensated by other plants. However, coordinated attacks against distribution centers would affect millions of people simultaneously.
The Strait of Hormuz: where oil, water, and war meet
The conflict does not exist in isolation. It takes place in the same strait through which 20% of all seaborne oil in the world passes.
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran has already halted oil and gas trade in the region.
Now, the same conflict zone also threatens water supply.
In this sense, the Strait has become the planet’s most vulnerable point — a chokepoint where energy and water can be cut off simultaneously.
Similarly, reconstruction logistics are a nightmare. Parts for desalination plants are manufactured in few countries and take months to arrive — and that’s in peacetime.
Iran also suffers: 5th year of drought and its own infrastructure threatened
On the other hand, Iran itself faces a severe water crisis. The country is experiencing its fifth consecutive year of drought, with reservoirs at critical levels.
American threats to destroy Iranian power plants would directly affect Iran’s ability to operate its own water treatment plants.
Indeed, the war has created a paradox: both sides threaten to destroy each other’s water infrastructure, while their own populations face scarcity.
Water has become a hostage of the conflict.
Analysts’ warning: “A catastrophe greater than the war itself”
CSIS, one of Washington’s most influential think tanks, warns that the systematic destruction of desalination plants would cause a humanitarian catastrophe that would surpass the direct damage of the military conflict itself.
According to the analysis, the impact would not be limited to the directly attacked countries. Food insecurity, forced migration, and political instability would spread throughout the region.
Still, there is no international treaty that specifically protects desalination plants as civilian infrastructure in conflict zones.
Therefore, what prevents the total destruction of these plants is not a rule — it is merely the calculation that retaliation would be equally devastating.
Consequently, water security experts from European and American universities have begun mapping alternative supply routes for Gulf countries, including emergency water imports by tanker ships — an expensive and slow solution that has never been tested on the scale needed to supply entire populations of cities like Doha or Manama.
What can still happen — and what can no longer be undone
Despite this, the damages confirmed until April 2026 are still classified as “isolated”. No large-scale plant has been completely destroyed.
However, the Iranian army’s public threat to attack these facilities has changed the strategic calculus of the entire region.
For the first time, Gulf governments need to seriously consider what happens if their water-making machines stop working.
For a region where rain is the exception and not the rule, this is a question no one wants to answer — but one that war has already forced everyone to ask.
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