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Missile and drone attacks have damaged desalination infrastructure in the region amid the deepening conflict involving Iran and the US and Israel.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said three people were injured and a desalination plant was damaged after a drone attack on 8 March.

“As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, three people were injured and material damage was inflicted on a university building in the Muharraq area after missile fragments fell,” the Bahrain Interior Ministry said in a statement.

“The Iranian aggression randomly bombs civilian targets and caused material damage to a water desalination plant following an attack by a drone,” it added.

Earlier, Tehran had accused the US of striking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island in southern Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post on social media platform X on 7 March: “The US committed a blatant and desperate crime by attacking a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island. Water supply in 30 villages has been impacted. Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences. The US set this precedent, not Iran.”

Iran’s parliament speaker also said on Saturday that the attack on the Qeshm Island desalination plant was carried out with support from an airbase in a southern neighbouring country. The claim has not been independently verified.

Later on 7 March, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) said it had struck the United States’ Juffair base in Bahrain in response.

“In response to the aggression of American terrorists from the Juffair base against the Qeshm desalination plant, this American base was immediately struck by precision-guided solid-fuel and liquid-fuel missiles of the IRGC,” the Guards said on their website.

The reported attacks on desalination facilities have raised concerns about the risks to water security across the region.

Bahrain is almost completely dependent on desalination plants for its population of 1.6 million. According to regional project tracker MEED Projects, the country has several major desalination facilities in operation, including the Hidd complex, the Abu Jarjour desalination plant and the Durrat Al-Bahrain seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) project.

The Hidd 3 complex is the largest desalination facility in Bahrain with a capacity of 227,124 cubic metres a day.

Unlike the GCC states, Iran obtains most of its water from dams, rivers and groundwater, with desaliantion accounting for only a small share of supply.

Despite this, Iran has completed over $1bn worth of desalination projects, according to MEED Projects.

Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment & Health, said in a post on X: “The reported strike on a desalination plant on Qeshm Island is deeply worrying. Millions depend on desalination across the Middle East.”

He added that “damage to water infrastructure, whether intentional or accidental, sets a dangerous precedent and risks depriving civilians of drinking water”.