Kuwait’s electric desalination plant was attacked by Iran on Sunday for the second day in a row, Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said.
An Iranian provincial official said Saturday that a US missile strike also damaged the country’s desalination plant. CNN has reached out to the US military for a response.
Plants that convert seawater into potable water are vital in the Middle East, providing a key lifeline and supporting some remote regions during droughts. Some countries in the region depend almost entirely on desalination of drinking water.
In Kuwait and Oman, desalination supplies about 90% of freshwater needs. In Bahrain it is 85%, and in Saudi Arabia it is about 70%. Major Gulf cities, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait and Jeddah, rely almost entirely on desalinated water.
Iran is less dependent on desalination than its Gulf neighbors. However, the process is key to providing water to coastal and island communities and helping combat drought.
Desalination plants were also attacked when the current conflict began in March. At the time, the World Water Council, a UN-affiliated organization that advocates for global water security, condemned the attacks and called on all parties to “fully comply with their obligations under international law.”
In his statement, he pointed to an article of the Geneva Convention that prohibits combatants from attacking vital resources for the survival of civilians, “such as installations and drinking water supplies.”
CNN’s Catherine Nicholls contributed to this report.