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Parts of the Middle East — especially around the Persian Gulf — rely on desalinated water. Worst-case scenarios for war in the region have often included attacks on desalination facilities, and the war with Iran that began on Feb. 28 has raised the potential for such a scenario. So far, there have been reports that a U.S. strike on Qeshm Island damaged an Iranian desalination plant and that an Iranian drone had hit a desalination plant in Bahrain. On March 30, an attack damaged a building at a power and desalination site in Kuwait. Iran has warned that it could destroy desalination facilities in Arab Gulf states, and U.S. President Donald Trump also threatened to “possibly” attack “all desalinization plants” in Iran if they fail to reach a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.Crucial water infrastructure is clearly at risk in the current war. Even if the war ends with the region’s desalination plants and related facilities intact, the situation highlights that desalination plants around the world are vulnerable. We asked five experts to identify the types of risks that countries with desalination plants face and how they should prepare.Read more below.Ed Cullinane Middle East Editor, Global Water IntelligenceThis war reminds us that we get our water from somewhere. For Western countries, water scarcity is primarily an environmental challenge. In the Gulf, it is a security challenge. Desalination plants supply between 70 and 90 percent of the water supply in urban areas in the Gulf states, delivered by approximately 300 major facilities. Desalination facilities are just as vulnerable as the liquified natural gas or oil refineries that have been hit in recent weeks. Iran, or the U.S.-Israeli coalition, could take out these plants — either by destroying the facilities themselves, or the plants powering them. This would create a