Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / War and military activity · Iran · 2026

Desalination plants hit in the 2026 war: Qeshm Island and Bahrain

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 1 not disclosed · 2 not measured · 1 unclear See the gaps

Iran's foreign minister said a strike hit a desalination plant on Qeshm Island on 7 March 2026 and cut freshwater to 30 villages; Bahraini officials said an Iranian drone damaged a Bahraini plant on 8 March. CEOBS described the environmental risks of damage to the Gulf's roughly 450 desalination plants.

30 villagesVillages whose freshwater supply was cut after the Qeshm plant was hit, per Iran's Foreign Minister
Statement by Abbas Araghchi, 7 March 2026, as reported by The Chemical Engineer.

Status As of 5 April 2026: no measurements of releases from the damaged plants were published; Iran's war-damage claim listed desalination plants as still under assessment.

What?
Reported strikes on desalination plants on Qeshm Island and in Bahrain in March 2026, and CEOBS's assessment of the environmental risks of damage to Gulf desalination plants. The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
Where?
Qeshm Island, Strait of Hormuz, Iran; an unnamed plant in Bahrain; the Gulf coastline. The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
When?
7 March 2026 (Qeshm, per Araghchi); 8 March 2026 (Bahrain); CEOBS notes of 10 and 27 March 2026. The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
Harmed
Why?
The plants were reported hit during the war that began on 28 February 2026; the sources give the parties' accounts of who struck. The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
How?
A strike on Qeshm and a drone strike on a Bahraini plant, according to Iranian and Bahraini officials respectively. The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

On 7 March 2026 Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a US strike hit a desalination plant on Qeshm Island, in the Strait of Hormuz, and cut freshwater supply to 30 villages (The Chemical Engineer, 16 March 2026). On 8 March Bahraini officials said an Iranian drone damaged one of Bahrain's desalination plants and that "water supplies were not affected". The article names neither plant and gives no capacity.

CEOBS wrote on 10 March 2026 that around 450 desalination plants supply roughly 100 million people in the Gulf, that "The plants routinely discharge hypersaline water into the Gulf" and that "Damage to desalination plants has the potential to cause environmental harm"; the plants use chemicals including sodium hypochlorite, ferric chloride and sulfuric acid. On 27 March it wrote that "The region's hundreds of desalination plants are at risk from direct attacks in the event of a serious escalation", with indirect risk from "major oil spill events".

On a possible release at the Bushehr nuclear plant, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a March 2025 interview that a Qatari simulation found the sea would be "entirely contaminated" and Qatar would "run out of water in three days" (The New Arab, 8 March 2025). Al Jazeera noted on 5 April 2026 that desalination plants are not built to filter radioactive material. Iran's government spokeswoman said on 14 April 2026 that damage to "water desalination plants" was still being assessed as part of Iran's war-damage claim. No plant-level cost is on record.

  1. 2025Qatar's Prime Minister describes a simulation in which a Bushehr release would contaminate the sea (March interview, reported 8 Mar)
  2. 2026Araghchi says a strike hit a Qeshm desalination plant (7 Mar); Bahraini officials report a drone hit on a plant (8 Mar); CEOBS risk notes (10 and 27 Mar); Al Jazeera on Bushehr and desalination (5 Apr)

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

“water supplies were not affected”

“The plants routinely discharge hypersaline water into the Gulf”

“Damage to desalination plants has the potential to cause environmental harm”

“The region's hundreds of desalination plants are at risk from direct attacks in the event of a serious escalation”

“entirely contaminated”

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's Prime Minister, describing a Qatari simulation of a Bushehr release · 2025-03 · The New Arab

“could be a war crime”

Kaveh Madani, UN University Institute for Water, on attacks on desalination plants (an expert opinion citing the Geneva Conventions) · 2026-03-16 · The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • A US strike hit a desalination plant on Qeshm Island and cut freshwater supply to 30 villages.
    Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, as reported by The Chemical Engineer · The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
  • An Iranian drone damaged one of Bahrain's desalination plants.
    Bahraini officials, as reported by The Chemical Engineer · The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)

Recorded

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: USD · Window: . All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • Government of Iran (2026-03-07): Foreign Minister Araghchi said a US strike hit the Qeshm plant and cut supply to 30 villages. · The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)
  • Government of Bahrain (2026-03-08): Officials said an Iranian drone damaged one desalination plant and that water supplies were not affected. · The Chemical Engineer (IChemE)

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Villages cut off from freshwater, per Iran's Foreign Minister
30
Qeshm Island, 7 March 2026
Desalination plants supplying the Gulf
About 450
Roughly 100 million people (CEOBS, 10 March 2026)
Qatari simulation of a Bushehr release
3 days
Time before Qatar would run out of water, per its Prime Minister (March 2025)

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No independent ecological evaluationKey earnings undisclosed

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: No independent ecological evaluation is on record.

Record

  • Not measured Not measured: brine, chemical or oil releases from the damaged plants are not on record.
  • Unclear Unclear: who carried out the strike on Qeshm; Araghchi's statement of a US strike is the only account on record and no independent confirmation is available.
  • Not disclosed Not disclosed: neither plant is named and no capacity is given (The Chemical Engineer).
  • None on record None on record: Iran's response to the Bahraini statement of 8 March.
  • None on record None on record: plant-level repair cost, legal proceedings and insurance.

Did the harm stop?

None on record. Bahraini officials said water supplies were not affected; the Qeshm supply cut to 30 villages has no later report on record.

Who paid?

None on record.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

Press and investigations

  1. Water desalination plants damaged in Iran and Bahrain
    The Chemical Engineer (IChemE) · 2026-03-16

Communities and civil society

  1. Operation Epic Fury: emerging environmental harm and risks in Iran and the region
    Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) · 2026-03-10
  2. Iran War: Environmental risk overview as of 27th March
    Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) · 2026-03-27

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Similar cases
Water use · War and military activity · Puerto Rico · 2032
Vieques and Culebra military clean-up expected to cost about $800 million
Same type: Water use, War and military activityHarm to nature not measured
Water use · War and military activity · Germany · 2023
German waters hold 1.6 million tonnes of munitions; Baltic to be disposal pilot
Same type: Water use, War and military activityHarm to nature not measured