Vital desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain are attacked. [View all]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/world/middleeast/desalination-plants-iran-bahrain.html

Vital desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain are attacked.
By Vivian Nereim
March 8, 2026 Updated 9:56 a.m. ET

Water desalination plants have come under attack in Iran and on the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain over the weekend, threatening a resource vital to life in the harsh desert climates of the region.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused the United States of attacking a desalination plant on Qeshm Island, affecting the water supply for 30 villages.

A day later, Bahrain’s interior ministry said that an Iranian drone had “caused material damage” to a desalination plant there, accusing Iran of “indiscriminately” attacking civilian targets. The country’s water and electricity authority said there had been “no impact on water supplies or water network capacity.”

Iran has faced severe water shortages in recent years, and Gulf countries like Bahrain depend heavily on desalination technology — which turns seawater into drinking water — to sustain tens of millions of people. Desalination infrastructure is one of the most vulnerable military targets in the region because without it, the Gulf’s sprawling metropolises would effectively collapse.

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