Iran struck the Shuaiba power and desalination plant in Kuwait on 19 July, setting it alight for the second time in two days, while Kuwait's General Staff said it was confronting Iranian attacks1.
Shuaiba sits on the coast south of Kuwait City and does two jobs from one set of machinery. Kuwait draws roughly 90 per cent of its drinking water from desalination plants powered by the same generating units that feed the national grid, so damage to a turbine hall is damage to the water supply. That is how a single strike reaches every tap in the country.
The first hit, on 17 July, burned through several generating units before Kuwait's fire force contained it, and within hours it had pushed the electricity ministry to ask households to ration water and power. Kuwaiti energy infrastructure entered Iran's target set well before this week. The Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery was struck for a third time on 3 April, alongside a desalination facility, causing fires without employee casualties.
Striking the same complex twice inside forty-eight hours changes the repair problem. Units already offline for damage assessment cannot absorb a second fire, spare turbine parts are not held in quantity, and there is no lake or river to draw on while the plant is down. Kuwait has fired no shots in this war. Its government is nonetheless rationing the two commodities the strikes are removing, in the hottest month of its year.
