President Donald Trump has renewed threats to target Iran’s water supply, desalination plants, and electric generating facilities, stating in comments on Fox News that the infrastructure is easy to strike and that destroying it could disrupt electricity in Iran for up to ten years.
The remarks, reported by BRICSinfo, represent an escalation in the type of threats Trump has made against Iran throughout the 2026 conflict and extend the targeting beyond military and energy infrastructure to systems that are essential for civilian survival.
Desalination plants provide approximately seventy percent of Iran’s potable water, and the country’s electric grid supports hospitals, water treatment, communication systems, and every other function that modern societies depend on. Destroying that infrastructure would not be a military victory.
It would be a humanitarian catastrophe that affects ninety million people, the vast majority of whom have no role in the decisions of their government or the actions of the Revolutionary Guard.
The comments were made against the backdrop of stalled peace talks, a failed ceasefire, and ongoing military operations that have already caused significant damage to Iranian infrastructure.
Trump’s earlier warnings focused on oil facilities, bridges, and military targets, but the inclusion of water and electricity systems in the threat marks a shift toward total war logic, where the goal is not to degrade military capability but to impose costs on the civilian population so severe that they either force the government to capitulate or create conditions for internal collapse.
That strategy, often referred to as collective punishment, is prohibited under international humanitarian law, which requires that military operations distinguish between combatants and civilians and that attacks on civilian infrastructure be proportionate, necessary, and not designed to cause excessive harm to the non-combatant population.
The assertion that Iran could lose electricity for ten years is not hyperbole. Modern electric grids are complex systems that depend on generation capacity, transmission networks, transformers, substations, and control systems, many of which are difficult to replace quickly and some of which require specialised equipment that is manufactured in limited quantities and subject to sanctions that would prevent Iran from acquiring replacements. If the US destroys key components of Iran’s grid, particularly transformers and substations that handle high-voltage transmission, the timeline for restoration could indeed stretch into years rather than months, and the costs, both financial and human, would be staggering.
The threat to target desalination plants is even more alarming because water is not a luxury. It is a survival necessity. Iran’s climate and geography make it heavily dependent on desalination, particularly in coastal areas where natural freshwater sources are scarce. Destroying those plants would force millions of people to rely on limited and unsafe water sources, trigger disease outbreaks, and create displacement on a scale that would destabilise not just Iran but the entire region as refugees flee to neighbouring countries.
The use of water as a weapon is considered one of the most severe violations of international humanitarian law, and the threat to deliberately destroy the infrastructure that provides water to civilians is a threat to commit a war crime….See More
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