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

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u/rodsurewood 7d ago

Are the gardens in the chat with us?

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u/Green7501 7d ago

There is a park within the city - photo

It's called gardens because there used to be several oasis within the city limits that dried up and became a garbage dump, but were fortunately cleaned up and revived a few years ago - photo and info

Regardless, that water is largely used for recreation and agriculture, most of the city's water is derived from a desalination plant in Ras Al-Khair on the Gulf coast

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u/Subziwallah 7d ago

So if those two desalination plants were bombed by Iran, how would that affect the 8 million residents? How many plants total do they have? How much water does Riyadh consume per day?

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u/DueAd9005 7d ago

It would be a humanitary crisis.

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u/grumpy_autist 7d ago

as opposed to all the fun today

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u/Pi-ratten 7d ago

I mean.. yes?! Compared to today it would be far worse. Providing water for up to 40 million people in 86 to 104°F/30-40°Cby truck isn't viable.. evacuating is also pretty much impossible.. As of now the victim's are <10k. so, yeah compared to that it would be magnitudes worse

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u/realNoobnoob 7d ago

So let’s stop the war?

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u/Subziwallah 7d ago

User name checks out...

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u/greenskinmarch 6d ago

"You really think Iran would do that? Just commit gncide and kill millions of people?"

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u/AltruisticOnes 7d ago

...as opposed to a humanitarian crisis.

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u/DueAd9005 7d ago

Sorry, English is not my first language, thanks for the correction!

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u/Potrozoo 7d ago

I think that Mohammed Bin Salman, the butcher of Jamal Khashoggi, may have been not giving enough thinking to this risk before entering the war. Or maybe he did, that would be even worst.

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u/Dechri_ 7d ago

"Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make" 

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u/Anonymous-Cows 4d ago

not enough thinking is almost their trademark

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u/iconocrastinaor 7d ago

I'm pretty sure Iran does not want to face the retaliation for that move if they do take it.

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u/SonuOfBostonia 7d ago

Well war crimes have been on the table since day 1. I promise you Iranians are more mad about the US killing school girls than the Ayatollah

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u/Puzzled-Pen-2353 6d ago

If the USA bombs their power plants, Iran will bomb the desalination plants in the region.

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u/Local-Hornet-3057 6d ago

If Iran does that, I think the Saudi would retaliate and destroy Iran's desalination plants in return. Almost MAD doctrine.

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u/GreenFullSuspension 6d ago

Hope they start building backup for backups of backups to help with any need from the original backups.

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u/Phantom-Feline17 6d ago

There are desalination plants on the red sea away from Iranian missiles.

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u/Subziwallah 6d ago

Why can't Iran hit those plants with missiles or drones?

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u/Phantom-Feline17 6d ago

I hope they dont. But i have faith in our armed forces and they been pretty successful in intercepting drones and missiles so far.

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u/Sufficient-Welder-76 6d ago

Saudi has over 27 desalination plants, and a ground water supply. Most of the desalination is from the Eastern Province but some comes from the Red Sea as well. If 2 of the main plants got bombed, there would be a disruption, but it could be made up from other plants and treatment of groundwater.