‘Severe water stress’: why desalination plants are the Gulf’s greatest weakness

A desalination plant in al-Khobar, a Saudi city on the Gulf. Photograph: Barry Iverson/Alamy

In 1983, the CIA determined that the most crucial commodity in the Gulf was its desalinated potable water.

Although the loss of a single plant could be handled, “successful attacks on several plants in the most dependent countries could generate a national crisis that could lead to panic flights from the country and civil unrest”. And the greatest threat to the region’s water supply? “Iran.”