Zuleika Nathoo

If the water in Iran leads to significant damage or destruction of the massive desalination plants in the Persian Gulf, the ripple effects could be significant.

Well, Gulf cities rely on that water to run industry cities and refineries.

So if water supplies are disrupted, we could see energy prices jump further, supply chains disrupted, and possibly higher costs for consumers.

And this is often known as the energy-water nexus, and it's more intertwined than we think.

So let me give you an example of how it can affect us here.

Energy powers water in the Gulf because there's almost no fresh water, right?

Water is also required to produce energy and petrochemicals.

Now that same energy helps produce fertilizer for the world, for example.

Places like Qatar and Saudi Arabia are big exporters of fertilizer.

Well, farmers here in the U.S.

are already feeling the pinch as spring planting season approaches because they need to plan out their crops.

So some might have to do less corn.

which takes more fertilizer and more soybeans, for example.

But that could all translate into higher prices for consumers later on because of supply and demand.

Desalination plants, or desal plants, remove salt from seawater to make it drinkable.

And if they're severely damaged in this conflict, we could feel the effects here over time.

To learn more about this, I want to introduce Shafiq Islam.

He's the founding director of the Water Diplomacy Program at Tufts University in Boston and a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Thank you so much for joining us, Shafiq, to talk about this issue.

Gulf cities and countries predominantly rely on what's called desalination plans to get drinking water.