The six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are planning to develop a joint water supply system that can take seawater from outside of the Arabian Gulf to supply the growing network of desalination plans.
According to Reuters, a plan is in place to for a pipeline across the states as a way of staving off potential pollution threats in the Gulf – either from a nuclear leak from Iran’s Bueshehr facility on the opposite side of the Gulf or from potential spills from one of the many offshore wells.
GCC assistant economic secretary Abdullah J. al-Shibli said: “With the Iranian nuclear plant in Bushehr, if something goes wrong the water in the Gulf will be polluted.”
The lack of fresh drinking water in Gulf countries means that they are increasingly reliant on an expanding network of desalination plants.