Water is life in the Finger Lakes, the Middle East, and everywhere else on the planet. Try living without it.

Unfortunately, in the United States and Israel’s war with Iran, depriving people of water has become a strategic weapon.

Early this week Iran accused the U.S. of bombing an Iranian desalinization facility on Qeshm Island, affecting water supplies for 30 villages. Iran used the same strategy on Bahrain, using a drone to damage the Bahrain desalinization facility.

The U.S. claims to know nothing about the missile strike at Iran’s desalinization facility. Iranian officials say the Bahrain attack and its attacks on other Gulf nations are because they are closely allied with the U.S. Attacks are aimed at American military bases, not civilians.

Who did what, when, and to whom is less important than the effects of losing any water-producing facilities. The entire Middle East suffers from almost perpetual drought. Iran is in the same water-shortage situation as most of nations in the region.

It is unarguably inhumane for anyone to strike at these life-sustaining desalinization facilities, but it’s not unexpected there would be retaliation after that first wave of U.S. bombs dropped on Iran flattened a school that resulted in the deaths of 165 people, mostly girls between the ages of 7-12. Nearly 100 others were wounded.

Then, bombs killed the leader of Iran as well as most of the nation’s leadership. Imagine U.S. reaction to a school bombing on our soil — or the assassination of the president.

Four days after the school incident, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that in this undeclared war with Iran, the U.S. would “fight to win” and there would be “no stupid rules of engagement.” His statements make it clear that destroying desalinization plants and civilian infrastructure are fair game for U.S. bombardment.

Any Finger Lakes water woes are minor league compared to missile strikes and soaring drones destroying water-producing facilities and/or crushing civilian targets. But, in the years I have been penning this column, relatively serious water-related topics surface, demanding attention.

At the end of this past summer and into fall, residents had to face the annual plague of harmful algal blooms. The HABs appeared on the surface of many lakes, threatening the health of animals and humans who came in contact with the green slime. The problem seems to be growing each year, not abating.

Another increasingly compelling water-related issue is the desire by some folks to build thirsty data centers that can require millions of gallons of water per day to cool computers. These data centers also are usually very heavy users of electricity, something in short supply across most of New York State.

Siting a data center on the shore of Seneca Lake might be attractive to corporate developers as they greedily eye abundant fresh water for the evaporative coolers used in many such facilities, but residents should be wary of such developments based on experiences with the Greenidge Generation power plant and cryptocurrency facility in Dresden.

The plant, powered by natural gas, is allowed by New York Department of Environmental Conservation officials to pull nearly 140 million gallons of fresh water from Seneca Lake daily to cool its many thousands of crypto computers. When a portion of that cooling water returns to the lake, it is legally allowed to be as warm as 108 degrees Fahrenheit — hotter than most hot tubs. A lot of folks believe hot water streaming back into the lake encourages the growth and spread of harmful algal blooms while also being an unhealthy blast for aquatic life.

Bottom line? No matter our politics, we can all relate to the fear of not having good water, in the Middle East or the Finger Lakes.

Fitzgerald has worked at six newspapers as a writer and editor as well as a correspondent for two news services. He splits his time between Valois, N.Y., and the Pacific Northwest. You can email him at Michael.Fitzgeraldfltcolumnist@gmail.com and visit his websites at michaeljfitzgerald.blogspot.com and michaeljfitzgerald.substack.com.

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