Hydrology, Hype, and Environmental Havoc: Lessons From the Persian Gulf
While scrolling through X (formerly known as Twitter), I came across a tweet from Dr. Eli David promoting Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2018 message on water issues directed at the Iranian people.
That tweet brought back some memories. When I traveled to Israel in 2019, I had a revelation—Israeli hydrologists, the absolute wizards of water management, had achieved what should have been impossible. According to the ever-so-accurate British White Paper of 1939, the land couldn’t possibly support more than 2 million people without collapsing. Fast forward to today, and not only has Israel defied that dire prediction, but it’s thriving—planning for an even denser population by 2050. I can almost picture the ghostly committee of White Paper authors floating in purgatory, scratching their spectral heads and mumbling, "Well, this is awkward."
In Tel Aviv, I had the privilege of meeting former high-ranking Israeli water officials because, obviously, I wanted to uncover the holy grail of water management—desalination! After all, isn’t that the magic trick that can save every parched soul on Earth? Enter Abraham Tenne, a top-tier expert, who confirmed my assumptions: desalination provides a limitless supply of fresh water from the conveniently salty sea. Amazing, right?
But then—plot twist worthy of a bad soap opera—he dropped a bombshell: “Desalination is the last resort” not the first option.
Excuse me? Come again? Wasn’t this the very same miracle technology Bibi Netanyahu had so generously promised to the Iranian people? What do you mean it’s not an instant cure-all? Surely, there must be some mistake!
In that brief window of time I had while interviewing him—because obviously, world-class water experts just sit around waiting to spill all their secrets in a single conversation—I couldn’t possibly extract every last detail. So, like any good water-obsessed wanderer, I made my way to the mighty Sorek Desalination Plant, where I was instantly blown away by its sheer potential to quench the thirst of thousands upon thousands of residents. What a marvel! A water factory, solving all problems, right?
But then, plot twist—turns out, this miracle water? Not for agriculture! That’s right, the world’s number one water guzzler doesn’t get a single drop of this high-tech H₂O. Instead, all this beautifully desalinated, painstakingly purified water is reserved for, well, people. And what happens next? The water makes its way through homes, becomes all sorts of delightful greywater and sewage, and then—because waste not, want not—it gets a second life through treatment and sanitation. Who knew? Apparently, everyone in the water industry.
While wandering through Sorek, marveling at the engineering marvel of the century, I happened to notice something fascinating—tiny fish and other little critters swimming around in the pools of water being pumped straight from the Mediterranean. Wow! Was this a desalination plant or a surprise aquarium tour? What a treat!
Of course, being the sharp observer that I am, it only took me a few years (yes, years) to fully grasp the minor detail that this very same water intake process was also mercilessly annihilating millions of marine organisms—little fish, larvae, plankton—all getting sucked into their doom before they could even contemplate their short, salty existence. But wait, there's more! As I stood there, basking in my newfound awareness, I realized another fun fact: the hot, ultra-saline brine being flushed back into the sea? Yeah, turns out it can also wreak havoc on marine life, especially in smaller bodies of water. But don’t worry—eventually, with time, dilution, and a whole lot of wishful thinking, the damage sort of fades away… right?
While in Israel, I couldn’t help but notice that their brilliantly marketable desalination technology was being eagerly sold to Arab states along the southern shores of the Persian Gulf. Ah, the sweet sound of strategic hydration! Israel, ever the savvy player, had masterfully turned water technology into a diplomatic charm offensive—breaking down barriers, making friends, and proving that nothing soothes decades of geopolitical tension quite like a state-of-the-art desalination plant.
Of course, this wasn’t exactly new. Israel had already worked its water magic with China in the past, and now, lo and behold, it was pulling off the same trick with the so-called steadfast supporters of the Palestinian cause. Water diplomacy: 1, Political posturing: 0. And guess what? This wasn’t even a post-Abraham Accords phenomenon—this liquid diplomacy had been flowing for years before those official handshakes.
But then, because I apparently enjoy ruining my own sense of wonder, I reached out to a marine biologist studying coral reefs in the Persian Gulf. That’s when I discovered yet another small inconvenience—all that hot, ultra-salty brine getting dumped back into the sea? Yeah, turns out it was slowly suffocating the waters and wreaking havoc on the coral reefs. Because, shocker, marine ecosystems don’t exactly thrive on concentrated salty bathwater. Who knew? Well, apparently, marine biologists.
Fast forward to 2023, and there I was again—back in Cape Town, because, naturally, my relentless pursuit of water wisdom knows no borders. This time, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Professor Slim Zekri, a consultant for the FAO in the Middle East, casually drop an absolute bombshell: In certain areas in the Persian Gulf, desalination plants had become so efficient at pumping out hot brine that some waters had reached a staggering 58 grams of salt per liter. Oh, you thought seawater was already salty? Pfft. Welcome to hyper-saline soup—now featuring marine life on the brink of extinction. Who could have possibly guessed that turning parts of the ocean into liquid death traps wouldn’t be great for biodiversity?
But wait—there’s more! Fast forward a year to AGU’s Fall Meeting in Washington, where I sat down with Esra Aleisa, a Kuwaiti professor, who delivered yet another cheerful on-camera revelation: Almost 90% of big fish species and 85% of all species in parts of the Persian Gulf had vanished—mostly thanks to desalination. Yes, vanished. Gone. Wiped off the map. Evaporated into the great, salty abyss. But hey, at least there’s plenty of fresh drinking water, right? Who needs fish when you can have unlimited plastic water bottles and a front-row seat to ecological collapse?
Now, before anyone starts hyperventilating, let me be clear—I’m not demonizing desalination! It’s an essential technology. But, you know what else is essential? Regulation—that pesky little concept that President Trump and that unelected-but-selected guy, Elon Musk, would probably set on fire if given the chance. Because without it, many regions in desperate need of freshwater will actually end up losing their chance to have it.
Yes, solutions exist. Yes, they come with costs. And yes, I totally understand the deep-seated allergic reaction some conservatives have toward Environmental Impact Assessments (the horror!). But maybe—just maybe—we should take a moment to appreciate the EPA, that annoying little institution founded by none other than Richard Nixon in 1970, and acknowledge that solving water shortages and protecting the environment don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
So, please—when talking about miracles in the water sector, let’s consider all the facts. No solution is perfect, but we need to find the most sustainable ones if we actually want to save humanity.