Javier Blas of Bloomberg reports that in the context of the conflict involving the US and Iran, the most critical strategic resource in the Middle East isn’t oil or natural gas, but fresh water, which desert nations rely heavily on desalination to produce.
Blas notes that intelligence officials have long warned that water could become a decisive geopolitical commodity, as hundreds of desalination plants supply essential drinking water to Gulf countries.
Any disruption to these facilities during military hostilities could trigger humanitarian crises and destabilize governments that depend almost entirely on desalinated water, making water security a central concern in the unfolding conflict. Blas writes:
The CIA calls it the “strategic commodity” of the Middle East. But it’s not referring to oil or natural gas. What the American spy agency has in mind is far more prosaic: drinking water. Don’t underestimate it, though, because if military hostilities continue to escalate, water could become the geopolitical commodity that decides the war between the US and Iran.
The Persian Gulf is gifted with a fabulous hydrocarbon endowment, worth trillions of dollars. What its desertic countries don’t have is water. From the 1970s onward, the oil money bought a solution: desalination plants. Today, the region relies on nearly 450 facilities to stop everyone going thirsty. […]
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