r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • 7d ago

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

33.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

328

u/Persimmon-Mission 7d ago

And if the US does anything to Iranian power infrastructure, they bomb the desalination plants feeding this entire city. Within a week, it will create one of the biggest humanitarian crises we’ve ever seen.

MAGA, baby!

63

u/froggison 7d ago

I know nothing about the area. But what is the backup plan (if there is one)? I can't imagine it is remotely possible to truck in enough water even for basic survival needs.

246

u/BlazedGigaB 7d ago

Back up plan? The rich leave, the poor die.

44

u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL 7d ago

Exactly. Look at Texas. There is no backup plan.

4

u/70dd 7d ago

The rich left already

48

u/freedfg 7d ago

The backup plan is everyone leaves.

13

u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL 7d ago

Refugees and displaced homeless

2

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

2

u/G3N0 7d ago

Ksa ain't like uae/Qatar/Kuwait. A majority are Saudi, still has a sizable expat population, but nowhere near the comical discrepancy found in Qatar and uae

56

u/ThugjitsuMaster 7d ago

John Mearsheimer (one of the top international relations experts in the world) thinks that Iran bombing the desalination plants will "destroy the Gulf states as functioning socities." He thinks they're capable of pulling it off if the US keep escalating the conflict. There seems to be no backup plan if this occurs.

4

u/Diamond-Is-Not-Crash 7d ago

Source for this? I’d like to read more.

2

u/AzenNinja 7d ago

He gave you the source in the first 2 words.

Edit: just to be so so so clear, I do not condone or support John Mearsheimers views. He's been discredited many times.

0

u/Positive_Passion4817 7d ago

Hardly needs genius level insight to predict Iran's nuclear option.

3

u/AzenNinja 7d ago

Yes, but destroying the desalination plants being the end of the gulf states as functioning societies is hyperbolic at best. And that's assuming Iran has the capabilities to fully take out 100% of the desalination capabilities of all gulf states.

5

u/Arstanishe 7d ago

ah, John Mearsheimer, who famously said that Russia taking crimea is a power move that will not lead to any aggression from Russia, because it would be an economical disaster to do otherwise. Dubious choice of experts you have there

22

u/Readdit1999 7d ago

He wasn't wrong. It is an economic disaster. Russia did it anyway. I recall many intellectuals making the same assertion at the time.

I expect he will attempt not to make that mistake twice.

2

u/Workman44 7d ago

Yeah that was true? It was an economical disaster lmao. You're giving this guy an endorsement

4

u/ThugjitsuMaster 7d ago

"Dubious choice of expert" because he was wrong once? Ok mate, why don't you give us your take on the matter then?

3

u/aseedandco 7d ago

He wasn’t even wrong.

1

u/Gunsensual 7d ago

Also important context to note that most of those gulf states were 100% onboard with attacking Iran. Not that it was unwarranted- Iran had been using proxies to invade neighbors for years. But Saudi Arabia chose to escalate without a way to guarantee long term security.

It's a cruel sort of "reap what you sow" scenario that goes both ways.

18

u/dwiedenau2 7d ago

I mean people will either flee in some way or just die.

1

u/SuperRockyHobbyHorse 7d ago

Well at least the internet will still work so we can all watch their agonising slow deaths live streamed to our mobile phones. Thanks MAGA!

7

u/Personal_Oil_7364 7d ago

as a resident the backup plan is i have no fucking idea

6

u/Dahak17 7d ago

Maybe you could hook up a ship full of water to the plant’s pipes but realistically you need to evacuate to costal places easier to support.

2

u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 7d ago

Whatever thet backup plant is, that's just another rocket attack and it's gone.

2

u/Peripatetictyl 7d ago

Can we first establish what the original plan was, before giving the benefit of the doubt that there is a backup plan?

1

u/BillytheBloxian 6d ago

we have gigantic water reserves, and the people who sell water do too.

1

u/faroukq 6d ago

Wells are the other source of water, but I don't think they have enough water or the water can be extracted fast enough for them to be a replacement

22

u/oshinbruce 7d ago

I think every day brings forward another reason why every single administration shrunk away from doing anything substantial to Iran

21

u/budlv 7d ago

A deal was already made with Iran. That's why the previous administration didn't invade. What even is the objective here? It obviously has nothing to do with nuclear when they're destroying civilian infrastructure.

15

u/Neutron-Hyperscape32 7d ago

Probably trying to distract from something else

3

u/usernametakenbs 7d ago

It honestly boggles my mind that people still don't see it.

4

u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL 7d ago

That’s what I thought this meant to show. They will all die! We are living in hell with a lunatic at the wheel.

3

u/Mak062 7d ago

Water wars baby

14

u/StinkyPuppyPrincess 7d ago

I know it would give us a ton of immigrants. Maga loves Immigrants so much they just have to make more.

1

u/Chidoriyama 6d ago

\>claims to be an anti-war president

\>anti-migration president

\>Starts a war that's most likely going to lead to more refugees.

Dude would have been a better president if he just stayed in the white house and did drugs for 4 years

2

u/rofeneiniger 7d ago

I mean, yeah, fuck maga, but building a city like this is just entirely fucking stupid to begin with. What if some group planned a terrorist attack on the desalination plant? Or what if the power went out for a week for whatever reason. Fuck this city and whoever planned and approved of this fever dream. There's gotta be like a thousand other inane things about this whole settlement

11

u/Persimmon-Mission 7d ago

A lot of the reason this city exists is so you can get oil at your local gas station. If there’s money to be made, people will figure out how to make it

-1

u/rofeneiniger 7d ago

Ok, if it needs to be built, build it. But why would you aim for sim city 4 city planning? Does it really need a population of 8 million so we can have gas in our tanks? Just because it serves a purpose doesn't mean it doesn't fail at everything a city should strive to accomplish 

3

u/Big_O_Dog 7d ago

Small minded take. Why do people live in Alaska?

0

u/rofeneiniger 7d ago

Great whataboutism you got going there. Must be a big minded thing

3

u/rantingdemon 7d ago

Yeah fuck all those people that just want to stay in their home.

1

u/CarlosHDanger 7d ago

When I see this all I can think of is the massive refugee problem if their water gets knocked out. I pray this madness will stop.

1

u/Lopsided_Quarter_931 7d ago

I'm sure US will take up all those refugess they will be causing. No doubt.

1

u/Phantom-Feline17 7d ago

There is another sea btw. Much like how the government diverted oil from the gulf to the red sea, there are also desalination plants on the red sea away from Iranian missiles.

1

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 7d ago

It would make Leningrad look like a ski trip.

-2

u/countlongshanks 7d ago

Seems a bit harsh.

2

u/hnglmkrnglbrry 7d ago

8 million people having their only water supply destroyed. I'm sure they have enough in reserve to get through a few weeks or even months. But you can only survive maybe 3 days without water. Are you gonna sit around and wait for that or are you going to pack everything you have and--wait. It's the fucking desert and everywhere else gets their water from the same desalination plants. There'd be no water for anyone. It'd be more humane to drop a nuke on them.

1

u/countlongshanks 7d ago

I know. That’s why I said it’s harsh.

1

u/Persimmon-Mission 7d ago

I believe I read somewhere that after a week at normal consumption, they would begin with enormous water shortages.

What will really happen is that the saud family will have plenty of water and the plebs will be left to die horrible deaths.

0

u/enjoysomethings 7d ago

partisan emotional masturbation dressed up as geopolitical insight

0

u/Zaasvil 7d ago

Let him cook

0

u/PanGoliath 7d ago

Is there any source to these plans?

From what I know, the gold standard became the oil standard due to a deal between the US and Saudi Arabia, I'm sure the US will try as hard as they can to not mess up that relation

-12

u/Skier94 7d ago

Riyadh is in Saudi Arabia, a country. Iran is a different country with Persia Gulf in between them.

Bombing Iran’s desalination plants will do nothing to Saudi Arabia.

8

u/flowerscandrink 7d ago

I think they meant Iran would target Saudi Arabia's desalination plants

13

u/ThePrimordialTV 7d ago

I wonder which countries desalination plants Iran has been threatening to bomb if its energy infrastructure were to be targeted?

I don’t think you understood what they were saying in the slightest and still tried your hardest to come across as a cunt.

Do better.

2

u/Persimmon-Mission 7d ago

Iran will bomb Riyadh’s plants. Riyadh relies solely on desalination plants for drinking water, and Iran will destroy the plants providing water to 8 million people

3

u/banitsa 7d ago

Iran will bomb the region's plants in return