Concern Rises Over the Danger to Desalination Plants in Iran
A Palestinian youth collects water at a desalination plant in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
As the war in Iran continues, CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and other Northeastern faculty discuss the dangers of damaging the regions desalination plants. These plants provide most of the freshwater to Iran and other countries in the region.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert.
Attacks on desalination plants in the Middle East threaten vital freshwater supplies for civilians
As the war in the Middle East unfolds, Northeastern University experts in politics, sustainability and international law are increasingly concerned that recent military attacks on desalination plants that provide the bulk of the region’s freshwater could become regular occurrences.
Iranian officials have accused the U.S. of striking a water desalination plant they say supplies 30 villages, while Bahrain said Iranian drones damaged a desalination plant there, though supplies remained online.
Even more so than oil, countries in the Middle East, including Israel, run on water pulled from the sea or brackish groundwater and converted into freshwater, said Auroop Ganguly, Northeastern distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Without the hundreds of desalination plants that dot the desert region, millions of people would be left without water for drinking, cooking and agriculture.
Bahrain, for instance, relies on seawater desalination for almost 95% of its potable water, while Iran relies on desalination mainly in the southern and coastal regions “although that may change as … both surface water and groundwater [become] scarce,” Ganguly said.
The recent attacks are “causing quite a lot of anxiety across the region, especially in these Gulf states that aren’t used to this kind of military violence and are now suddenly finding their civilian infrastructure on the front line,” said Jonathan Rock Rokem, an associate professor in politics and sustainability at Northeastern University in London.
“Water is a key resource that people need to survive. It’s a much more important resource than we think in the West. In the West, we take it for granted,” he said.
Desalination plants represent tempting targets since they are situated along the coasts of the Gulf and Mediterranean and drones and rockets don’t have to penetrate as far inland, Rokem said.
Read full article on Northeastern Global News